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Joshua Hendren

Contributing writer for Style by SCMP, specialising in jewellery, watches and pop culture


The visual language of watchmaking has long been dominated by symmetry. Circular, square and rectangular cases have defined the landscape for centuries. Yet just as you wouldn’t let style rules dictate your entire wardrobe, there’s no reason to let them dictate the shape of every single watch.
When most designs follow the same template, breaking away from it becomes all the more striking. An increasing number of brands are doing just that by moving away from obvious symmetries to experiment with more or less irregular silhouettes.

Among the new generation of freer designs, independent watch company Anoma is one of the newest. The UK-based brand approached its first watch, the A1, launched in 2024, as a bold statement of innovation and craftsmanship. Its rounded triangular case takes its cues from a 1950s free-form table by Charlotte Perriand – the French designer who created furniture with Le Corbusier – the softened edges of river stones and the streamlined forms of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi.
“We create wearable sculptures, inspired by the rich world beyond watchmaking. We draw inspiration from art, architecture, nature and beyond, to craft designs that feel both strikingly new and deeply familiar,” says founder Matteo Violet-Vianello. “Our goal is to embody a more experimental and daring vision of watchmaking, breaking free from traditional constraints. This is not the conventional approach. Hence our name, Anoma, which is short for anomaly.”

He adds: “Ergonomics are crucial. We spend a long time refining proportions and curvature during the design process, ensuring the watches wear comfortably and naturally despite their sculptural appearance. For example, our A1 case has a soft, flowing profile that hugs the wrist while maintaining visual tension in its geometry.”
The newer A1 Optical builds on this approach with a dial engraved with 50 subtly offset triangles, which are inspired by optical art – an approach that uses geometric patterns to create optical effects like movement or warping.
The first 300 watches – 150 in copper and 150 in silver – are individually numbered and paired with an Adam Fuhrer artwork bearing the same number. “Collectors are often excited to encounter something different, especially when it still respects craft and quality,” notes Violet-Vianello. “The unconventional shape becomes a talking point. It invites curiosity and emotion in a way that traditional forms sometimes don’t. Many collectors have told us that the case design was what first drew them to Anoma.”

Storied maisons have also explored asymmetry. Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet has approached the idea from the opposite direction, revisiting an era when it briefly abandoned symmetry altogether. The [Re]Master02 draws on the brand’s early 1960s experiments with asymmetry. Between 1959 and 1963 it created more than 30 unconventional models, most produced in fewer than 10 examples, including the 1960 Ref. 5159BA that inspired this watch.
The new 41mm model, crafted in Sand Gold – a proprietary 18k gold alloy with a tone between white and pink – is a limited edition of 250 pieces and boasts sharply angled facets that follow the slope of its sapphire crystal. The dial, meanwhile, features Audemars Piguet’s Bleu Nuit Nuage 50 deep blue and comprises 12 brass triangles, each given a linear satin finish and framed by Sand Gold partitions.

Exaequo, a Swiss brand founded in the early 1990s, represents another branch of the new-wave sculptural camp, having built its identity on distortion. Its Classic Melting watch, which channels surrealist art and the idea of time melting or slipping, features a “hypermelted” case, a domed Plexiglas crystal and black Roman numerals that appear to have been distorted by the same “melting”.
Recent rose gold-dial versions, limited to 101 pieces in either 316L steel or PVD rose gold cases, are fitted with newly designed steel bracelets that alternate brushed and polished links. Inside is a Ronda 751-1 electromechanical movement. The brand has also launched the Revolve Melting watch, which brings in a pop art note with its lip-shaped body and a polished silver-effect steel case. It comes with white, blue or black dials under mineral glass, tone-on-tone numerals, black luminescent hands and a black silicone strap.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are fashion-led interpretations. Italian luxury house Ferragamo’s contribution to the trend is the Asymetrique. Designed by creative director Maximilian Davis, the watch has a “sawn-off” rectangular case with angled lugs that integrate smoothly into the case sides to keep the silhouette balanced. A white silver sunray dial with stud indices is powered by a Swiss Ronda 762.2 quartz movement, while the watch is offered on a yellow gold-finished steel bracelet with a butterfly clasp, and also comes in diamond-set and leather-strap versions.
Archival revivals have also helped keep the spirit of experimentation alive. Hamilton’s Ventura shows how long such experiments have been part of watchmaking. Launched in 1957 as the world’s first electric watch, it was created by American industrial designer Richard Arbib, who was given free rein to ignore convention. The result was a sharply triangular case that became an emblem of mid-century futurism. It reached pop cultural fame when Elvis Presley wore one in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii. The current Ventura Quartz model nods to the Elvis connection with a deep-blue dial inspired by his 1956 hit “Blue Suede Shoes”, along with a yellow gold PVD-coated triangular case and matching flex bracelet.

The Ventura’s futuristic look has since made it a fixture on screen, with the watch appearing in every Men in Black film since 1997 as part of the agents’ signature uniform. More than 60 years on from its launch, it remains instantly recognisable. Recent iterations range from the openworked Ventura Elvis80 Skeleton Auto to the Ventura Chrono Quartz and Ventura Edge Dune Limited Edition, which reimagines a watch created for Dune: Part Two with a matte black PVD-coated case, glowing blue digital display and relief-patterned dial.
Yet, perhaps no watch has challenged symmetry more than Cartier’s Crash – an icon of irregular watchmaking. Created in 1967 at the company’s Bond Street boutique, it dispensed with symmetry entirely, its dial and Roman numerals stretched and warped as though liquefied. Long believed to have been inspired by Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks, the truth is more straightforward: shortly before his death in 2010, Jean-Jacques Cartier told his granddaughter Francesca Cartier Brickell that he and designer Rupert Emmerson had created it “just like that” by altering Cartier’s Maxi Oval model, after a request from actor Stewart Granger for something “unlike any other”.

Granger returned the first example as “too unusual” and only around a dozen were made between 1967 and 1968. Early London-made examples now command over US$1 million at auction, up from an original price of around £800 (around US$1,070 today). Cartier has reissued the model sparingly since – a 1991 Paris edition of 400 pieces, diamond-set white and rose gold versions in 2013, the openworked Crash Skeleton in 2015 and a platinum edition in 2023 – and demand still far outstrips supply. Celebrities including Jay-Z, Timothée Chalamet, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner and Blackpink’s Jisoo have all worn the design, reinforcing its cult status and showing how its flowing silhouette works across genders.
Irregularly shaped watches may once have been novelties, but these models show how they can also be exercises in intentional design, precision and craft. They depart from convention without sacrificing function, and in doing so, these timepieces stretch the creative possibilities of watchmaking.


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Timothée Chalamet, pictured with Kylie Jenner at the 81st Golden Globe Awards in January 2024, is a fan of the Cartier Crash. Photo: Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images

The making of a classic Cartier Crash. Photo: Handout

Anoma’s A1 Optical watch uses geometric patterns to create optical effects. Photo: Handout

The [Re]Master02 draws on Audemars Piguet’s early 1960s experiments with asymmetry. Photo: Handout 

The Classic Melting watch by Swiss brand Exaequo. Photo: Handout 

Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis designed the Asymetrique. Photo: Handout

Hamilton’s futuristic Ventura watch with deep-blue dial. Photo: Handout

Jay-Z, a noted watch collector, is seen wearing a Cartier Crash to the 2021 BFI London Film Festival. Photo: WireImage

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Sebastian Stan wearing the new Santos Black Dial. Handout

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Watches

Blackpink’s Jisoo and Timothée Chalamet are fans of the Cartier Crash, while Hamilton’s Ventura has shown up on Elvis Presley’s wrist and in the Men in Black movies


Blackpink’s Jisoo and Timothée Chalamet are fans of the Cartier Crash, while Hamilton’s Ventura has shown up on Elvis Presley’s wrist and in the Men in Black movies.
