What’s up with recent flurry of 36mm watches?

2024 is the year of the short kings. Simple as.

Everything old is new again.

Smaller watches are about inclusion. Brands are realizing that women will indeed buy watches if those watches aren't gem covered rose gold tiny quartz girlie things.

Notice they did not discontinue all the larger watches. You can still buy them. This is just a smart addition to broaden the catalog

Cost savings....? Lol

Demand in the market. More people are becoming comfortable with smaller watches and companies buy inventory based off demand and market trends. In my honest opinion, I'm happy that people are realizing that most 40mm+ watches look disproportionate on most sub 7inch wrists. That's of course my opinion and everyone should wear what they like.

I just like watches.

I have and wear stuff from 33/34 up to an obnoxiously large 54+.

IMO, too many ppl get wrapped around if others think it fits. Or if it meets the talking heads "ideal" diameters. Don't get me wrong, I personally like 39/40, with a 20mm. But that's because I just like that.

Still also like stupid small world timers and obnoxiously HOOGE ABC digi's.

36mm watches are what brands hope women will start buying, perhaps sell a few to guys who want a smaller watch. My sis in law recently purchased a significant watch that she can wear until one day she passes it to some family member, not surprising she chose a rose gold Patek Philippe but the 36mm case size surprised me, the veteran Patek ad said PP is a conservative brand do not launch models that will go out of style soon. He sort of shot me a dirty look when I asked if 36mm was the new old hip case size for guys as well? He said case size has always been a matter of personal choice, not complicated not controversial.

It’s not about women, most of the men’s watches are coming out with 36mm sizes

I only wear 36mm or smaller now for comfort.

What are the sizes that you would consider comfortable or fitting to your wrist?

Because men's watch comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, and when we look at pre-late 90's watches it's obvious that they tended toward the smaller diameters rather than the larger sizes that we grew used to during the first decade of the 21 century.

Im a 6.5" wrister, proof of life below:) A 36mm works for me. As do other sizes. Naturally it comes down to preference. I run into over hang if the dial and lug to lug dont work for me. So I opt for 35mm to 39mm. I wear 41mm occasionally if the lug to lug is compact.

7.5 inch wrist here and a 36mm case with a good dial to case ratio works surprisingly well. I say surprisingly because for the longest time I pretty much only had 44-45mm watches. I even sport a 34mm "women's" watch from time to time.

Looks great on you mate! I recently tried the 34mm Tissot PRX on my 7.5 in wrist and thought it was a joke.

They already have every single watch in 40mm and above,need to make them for everyone else now,don't be disappointed there's twenty years of big watches for you to choose from,time for the smaller wristed to get there's 👌👍😂

I'm 6'0, with a 7.25in wrist and won't buy over 47mm L2L. I'm happiest at 37-38mm but 35-36mm is very much in play. For me, aesthetically, the watch head shouldn't come close to matching the width of the wrist which seems to be the cut-off for most wearers on WC and elsewhere.

With a 7.5 inch wrist, 38mm is the smallest I can wear. I can appreciate others wanting smaller, though. I doubt I'll run out of 40mm watches to buy anytime soon!

I know, what about us. Anything under 40mm unless it has outrageously big lug to lug just looks silly on me. As an upside to this new 38 and less fad it saves us some money

As an eight inch wrist leviathan, I am wondering how these will fair upon my wrist.

It broadens the customer base.

It's classic and in many models is unisex

I wear 36mm cases quite often. I have one 35mm watch, another 37mm. They wear quite nicely, I must say.

Watch size is merely a matter of fashion of the moment. There are no inherently right/wrong, too big/too small, men’s/women’s sizes. We compare size to whatever fashion trend was dominant when we started paying attention.

When I was growing up 34mm was a standard size for men. If you’d have tried to sell a 40mm watch back then, people would have thought you were trying to put hubcaps on their wrists. Once 40mm became common through the 90s and oughts, folks think anything under 38mm is “too small.”

(You begin to realize you are “of an age” when you start to see fads from decades back reappear… 😉)

Big watches were like pleated pants, I could hardly wait for that trend to go away.

It’s just trends as with any industry. This happens to be one I like 🙂

Literally my personal experience.

Men’s fashion has been going down a more demure, slightly androgynous path for quite a while now. The maximalism and futurism of the 2000’s has pretty thoroughly passed (but will be back before we know it). People don’t want bold, impressive things; they want precious, “authentic” things. It’s one of the cool things about getting older, you can just keep doing your thing and it will come back around eventually

for a few years every watch was 40mm or over. I have never been comfortable w/ anything without a dive / gmt bezel being over 38MM. Feels like a correction to the market as styles are coming back from big and bold.

Nice to have a better range of sizes out there. But that being said everything i look at these days are 39mm and smaller.

Long live the <7.25" wrists!!

Finally... I approve this trend a lot.

I am also disappointed, I wish they made them in 34mm 😬 and thinner.

They want 36mm coz they haven’t had a 50mm Aragon watch on them! Muahahah