This Is the Next Big Trend in Watches (and I Already Tried It On)

Six weeks ago, I sat down with Franziska Gsell, the CMO of IWC Schaffhausen, a Swiss watchmaker under Richemont's umbrella (Cartier, Panerai, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Vacheron Constantin), in a bright-white showroom on the second floor of 10 Corso Como, one of Milan's premier shopping destinations. I, along with watch experts from around the world, was there to preview IWC's 2025 offerings, essentially getting an early look at what was just unveiled during Watches and Wonders in Geneva.

Unlike most of my fellow attendees, I don't come from a watch background. I don't know the anatomy of a timepiece by heart, and aspects of luxury watches, including buying one, are just as intimidating to me as they are to any horological newcomer. I do know, however, what watches I like—and Gsell's colleague, IWC's CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr, had just introduced one: the 35 Automatic Ingenieur.

A year and a half ago, when I traveled to Las Vegas with IWC for an event surrounding the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, the brand generously lent me its then-smallest (and only) size of the Ingenieur, a 40 mm, which stood out to me because of its sharp elegance and modern, yet timeless design. I wore it every day for a week, discovering how seamlessly what I considered a men's watch could be integrated into my wardrobe, styled alongside everything from slip dresses to velvet. Up until that trip, I, like many women, had only really considered investing in smaller timepieces with simpler designs—watches that looked and acted more like jewelry than a living, breathing device designed for utility (and, of course, impressive exteriors). I own two luxury watches, one a rectangular style that measures 33.7 mm by 25.5 mm, and the other, an even tinier round model with a 26 mm case. It wasn't until I actually wore a larger, heavier, and more durable watch that I discovered the benefits, both stylistically and practically. I only really had one qualm. I needed the Ingenieur to be the tiniest bit more compact to fit my wrist size, a desire that, according to Gsell, many of IWC's customers also hold.

Today, the watch brand from Schaffhausen delivered, presenting at Watches and Wonders a 35 mm Ingenieur designed for the shopper who wants everything the Ingenieur Automatic 40 currently has to offer—a sleek and sporty appearance, elite craftsmanship, water resistance, and versatility—just in a slightly shrunken version, creating a more comfortable and wearable piece for people with smaller wrists. It's not a women's watch (or a men's watch for that matter), but rather a solution for fans of the Ingenieur. "Who am I to tell someone which size he or she has to pick?" questions Gsell. "But to have an offer for more slender wrists that ergonomically sits really well—that is just what we were missing in this collection," she says.

Although the Ingenieur (like all of IWC's timepieces) is unisex, Gsell and the IWC team still need to be tapped into the growing interest in the women's market. "Women are really interested now in mechanical movements [and] in complications," she tells me. According to her, mechanical timepieces are a conversation starter, and in her experience, women interested in one want to educate themselves on the engineering behind them. "A watch is your companion," she says. "It tells a story about you and is normally [associated with] a milestone you celebrate." It's not just any other accessory in your jewelry box, or the case of smart watches, a way to read emails and track steps. A mechanical watch is a future heirloom. "It's really emotional," Gsell says. "The mechanical watch is beautiful, and there's a lot of craftsmanship going into one." Women are thoughtful consumers, and if they're going to purchase something as significant as a luxury mechanical timepiece, they want to learn about its intricacies and capabilities and care for it, setting their desired piece up to be passed down for generations to come.

If IWC was looking for proof that tackling the extremely difficult and technical process of sizing the Ingenieur down from a 40 mm case to 35 mm was worth the work, I'm it. After speaking at length with Gsell about the brand's decision to move forward with the task, I headed straight toward a testing room where the new, scaled-down model was waiting to be tried on and photographed at length. I picked up the steel version with a white/silver dial first, slipping it onto my wrist and immediately noticing how much better of a fit the 35 mm size was compared to its larger iteration (and as I already noted, I was an instant fan of the 40 mm when I test-drove it in 2023). It has all the elegance and sleekness of the original Ingenieur Automatic 40, just with a balanced look on smaller wrists like mine. Particularly, I noticed how the new, smaller size allowed the Ingenieur to fully embrace its understated roots. "It's not a watch that should be seen across the table," Grainger-Herr said of the Ingenieur in a speech earlier in the day. "It's not a watch that screams." For me, the 35 mm produced a more natural look, a trait that's been in the Ingenieur's DNA since Swiss designer Gérald Genta worked his magic on the timepiece in the 1970s.

Having styled the Ingenieur multiple times in the past, I knew I didn't have to think too hard about putting together an outfit for IWC's preview, even though I was well aware that I'd be shooting some content in its new iterations. I ended up pairing the white/silver version of the Ingenieur Automatic 35 on a steel bracelet with a simple pastel-blue button-down shirt tucked into a red velvet column skirt, adding black, round-toe pumps and a '90s-inspired Prada handbag. Though it's a sportier timepiece than I'm used to wearing, I personally still don't feel the need to combine it with other jewelry, feeling that the detail work on the Ingenieur does enough to fill any gaps on the accessories front. All of the colors and textures came together, dare I say, perfectly, with the white dial popping against my outfit's otherwise bolder color palette.

Even so, I could have just as easily paired the same Ingenieur with a white T-shirt and jeans or a black suit as tailored to me as this new watch is for my left wrist. Going with a simple color scheme for an investment like this allows your watch to become an extension of you, by your side all day, every day, no matter what you're wearing. And if white and silver aren't for you, the other color options are just as versatile: A black dial on a steel bracelet and an 18-carat 5N gold version with a matching dial. (According to Gsell, 5N gold looks similar to rose gold but has a higher level of pure gold in it: "It's an escalation," she says.) Whichever model you choose, the brand promises it'll offer the same enhanced ergonomics and highly detailed finishing as the original 40 mm option, just in a slightly more compact frame.

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Suffice to say, when I walked out of IWC's 2025 pre-Watches and Wonders preview in Milan, I knew exactly which watch to set my sights on this year. And trust me, I saw a lot of beautiful timepieces that day (including the watch IWC made custom for Brad Pitt's character, Sonny Hayes, in the forthcoming F1 movie). The new 35 mm Ingenieur is cool and instantly recognizable yet timeless and understated. Practically speaking, it can withstand just about anything, all while maintaining an elegant exterior aesthetic that's guaranteed to impress in any sort of outfit at any sort of occasion. On my wrist, at least, it felt just right.

IWC's Ingenieur Automatic 35 is available in stores and online starting on April 1, 2025.