Who says ladies’ watches have to be teeny and cutesy? As women seek bolder, gender-neutral looks, luxury timepieces from Audemars Piguet, Chopard, Hublot and Rolex make timely trends

The incredible smile of Julia Roberts, the actress who is the face of Chopard’s Happy Sport and its latest models, says a lot about the joyful mood those free-floating diamonds inspire as they whizz around between the dial and outer sapphire crystal of this iconic sports watch. Roberts personifies the joie de vivre motto of the Happy Sport collection, which was launched in 1993, just three years after she made her name in Pretty Woman.

The watch, with its dancing diamonds on a stainless steel bracelet, was considered a radical innovation. It was the first design for ladies using stainless steel, a versatile material that had transformed watchmaking in the 1970s due to its stylishness, durability and stability, but hitherto had been confined to muscular men’s watches. Chopard democratised that, provocatively combining the industrial toughness of steel with the glamour and hardness of diamonds for a new generation of timepieces that fed into the mood for female empowerment.

Women were buying bolder, sportier watches for their assertive look, while the playful diamonds expressed the feminine side of their personality. Very quickly the innovative white steel and diamond sports watch has become a classic, reinterpreted and updated regularly – particularly in the past year as women have been drawn back to the bold sporty designs with that edge of luxury.

Chopard has refreshed and refined the Happy Sport using a hi-tech steel alloy from recycled materials, with a diamond-set bezel for two limited editions, both sporting the watchmaker’s in-house automatic movement. It also pays homage to the original with three new creations in 33mm and 36mm quartz models with three or five dancing diamonds, or a 36mm with seven and a mechanical self-winding movement, all in a wardrobe of blues, from sky to midnight, for jeans to cocktail dressing.

Many of the sporty watch updates are infused with colour, whether on the dial or as a glammed-up gem-set rainbow around the bezel – an uplifting look that became particularly popular for men’s and women’s timepieces during the pandemic.

Rolex has added a splash of colour to its classic sporty Oyster Perpetual Datejust 31, creating a floral motif dial in azzurro blue with each flower punctuated with a diamond. The colour and motif feminise the hi-tech oystersteel case, a corrosion-resistant material part of the Rolex manufacture since 1985.

Zenith’s Defy collection, launched in 2020 and tailored exclusively for women in the growing sports-chic market, now features an orange gradient coloured Midnight Sunset guilloche engraved enamel dial, or the blue green of the Midnight Borealis, with diamond bezel and hour markers. They come with a steel bracelet and a quick strap-change mechanism with sustainably made leather, textile and rubber straps.