Gen Z’s love for retro watches has little to do with keeping time

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — Evan Fry was born in 2003, a point in human history when many people’s back pockets held a Nokia 1100 or the Sony Ericsson T610. Mobile phones had been displaying the time on their LCD screens for almost a decade by this point — and the anxiety of how they might replace the traditional wrist watch was already in full swing. “Many young people see them as obsolete as sundials,” read one 2005 newspaper article. “For them, cell phones are the new watches.”

Throughout his life, the time has been available to Fry on iPhone screens, laptops, TVs, electric ovens, central heating systems, Nintendo DS’s and even beamed eeriely through bathroom mirrors. Which makes it all the more interesting that Fry has collected more than 35 watches, averaging between $1,000 and $2,000 a piece. So far, his prized possession is a Tag Heuer Carrera — a silver linked piece with a deep magenta bezel which he bought for around $3,500. One day, Fry hopes to have a H Moser on his wrist, though some models retail for roughly around $50,000. He’s already tried on his favorite, featuring a vanta black dial and no indexes, in the shop. “It’s just to die for,” he said.

Aged 22, Fry is part of a growing Gen Z cohort of watch lovers. According to secondhand luxury watch retailer Bezel, those under 30 account for a third of the company’s transactions. This group has been previously underestimated by legacy brands, said Bezel’s CEO Quaid Walker. “I think the watch world is just starting to really pay attention to younger demographics,” he told CNN. According to Walker, the Gen Z market are the ones on average spending the most on a single watch purchase.

Longines, the storied luxury Swiss watchmaker, has also noticed an uptick in younger customers — particularly in those looking to restore or service older pieces. Thiago Abrantes, an assistant manager in London, said around 50% of those he encountered at the city’s flagship store looking to service a watch were under 30. He put it down to inheritance. “A lot of people get a watch from dad as a gift,” he said.

Although his friends are catching on, Fry’s level of enthusiasm for watches means he is still “an outlier” amongst his peers. He makes YouTube videos from his home in Utah discussing his latest obsession and new releases from brands. He also gives virtual tours of his formidable vintage collection, which includes pieces from the ‘60s, ‘70s and even a Zenith pocket watch from last century. His interest, he says, is partly down to a curiosity in our cultural history. “They were a real companion in someone’s life, and because of their necessity they had to be used every single day,” Fry said in a phone call. “There’s something deeply fascinating and almost sacred about holding and owning a piece that has gone through so much.”

That same sense of nostalgia could be driving design preferences, too. According to data collected in 2025 by luxury watch resale marketplace Chrono24, Gen Z buy more classic dress watches than any other age demographic. The number of timepieces in this style — slim, formal with simple dials in gold, silver and often with a leather strap, like the Cartier Tank Louis Cartier, the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony or a vintage Seiko — bought by those aged between 14 and 28 has risen 44% since 2018. “It anchors onto a time when things were collected, or made to last,” said Walker.

Dahyn Lee, owner of the online vintage watch shop Teia Collective, says that over 45% of her 10,000 followers on Instagram are Gen Z. “They grew up in this highly digital enviroment… It seems to me that it only intensified their desire for tactile and tangible objects,” she said. Once a month Lee sells her collection, sourced through a mix of antique fairs, eBay and relationships cultivated with Japanese sellers, at vintage markets in London. With prices ranging from $60 to $460, these are entry-level purchases. She said teenagers will often approach her stall and choose a piece because “this is just like what my grandma used to wear.”

“I think it almost works as a connection to the past,” Lee said. “They can feel nostalgic for a time when they didn’t even exist.”

Gendered watches? A waste of time

Lee’s customers are also “obsessed” with dainty ladies watches — no matter their gender. “I’ve sold quite a lot of what is categorized as women’s watches to guys,” she said. “And then there are girls who ask for men’s watches as well.” Fry also owns a number of timepieces originally designed for women. “I wasn’t brave enough to start wearing smaller, more feminine pieces until Timothée Chalamet wore that Cartier Panthère,” he said, referencing Chalamet’s 2024 “Dune: Part II” red carpet look in Mexico City. “Especially because he and I have very similar physiques. It was just that initial spark.”

Abrantes echoes that celebrity influence is huge in the watch world — especially for those starting out and figuring out their taste — giving younger customers permission to buck trends, discover independent brands and break convention. After the Academy Awards, which saw A-listers such as Hudson Williams, Michael B. Jordan, Shaboozey and Pedro Pascal experiment with smaller, more feminine styles, Abrantes had customers coming into Longines with screenshots from the red carpet looking for similar pieces. “People come in and try it on for curiosity. Sometimes they buy, sometimes they don’t,” he said.

“We have the same experience,” said Walker, whose app Bezel pairs customers with an in-house watch expert who can provide research, advice and purchase suggestions on request. “Folks will say, ‘I’m buying my first watch,’ and they’ll show us a photo of someone on the (red) carpet wearing something interesting,” he added. This concierge service can alert younger shoppers to lesser known names, deepening brand knowledge outside of stereotypical big hitters like Rolex or Patek Phillippe. “It’s not just ‘I want to collect this watch because everyone else collects this watch,’” Walker said. “It’s actually an inversion of that.”

Lee says her shoppers are even more keen to prioritise design over specific brand cache — or sometimes in her experience, even function. “I see my customers as predominantly people who love beautiful things, rather than people who are obsessed with watches,” she said. “All of my watches listed on my website are working, but then sometimes when I see something very special in terms of design, I do collect and sell it at the market,” Lee added. “Some customers really don’t mind a watch not working because they actually want a bracelet. I think that is very characteristic of Gen Z.” It’s often more about “the look,” she says.

Sometimes, a 14 or 15 year old — birth year: circa 2011, reigning mobile phone design: iPhone 4 — bounds up to her stall excitedly, about to buy a piece. “And then they tell their friends, ‘I don’t even know how to read time.’”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.