It is with this image, published exactly one year ago on October 25, 2024, that the Maison presents the mini watches on social channels, turning the presentation of its Mini models into a small theater of proportions.
The palette is Cartier‘s unmistakable one: the cream of softness, the red of sophistication, the black of elegance. The message is as precise as a vocabulary entry: “Mini is Marvelous.” And size is (again) the protagonist of this new act.
The turning point for many was 2023, with the return of the Baignoire Bangle. A debut that united and offered the best of both worlds, watchmaking and jewelry.
Between 2023 and 2025, the curve has been evident. Confirmed most recently by thelist price increase in May of this year, which, not coincidentally, in most cases involved the smallest models.
What once seemed really “too small,” or too tied to a circumscribed and defined idea of the feminine, now represents the most desired scale.
The cocktail watch is back: here’s how they wear the “Mini Watch” in Hollywood
If you try to look around, the most visible confirmation of this trend is at the wrists that define contemporary pop imagery. From the ultra-trendy EIHGs (an acronym for “elusive international hot girl,” coined by Tariro Makoni in his highly followed Trademarked newsletter) to the red carpets of the International Awards, nowhere more than Hollywood has staged this inversion. On the women’s side, the language remains consistent and universal, and it was difficult otherwise. But it is not only women who are being won over by the smaller watches.
Cartier ambassador Timothée Chalamet ushered in 2025 by wearing two Mini Tanks at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, balancing the Maison’s opulence with the lightness of precise detail for his Bob Dylan. He owns a Tank Française Mini in yellow gold, and back in 2023, in Las Vegas during a Lakers-Pacers game, he was photographed courtside wearing a steel Cartier Panthère Mini, later seen again during an interview with him on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
A few months earlier, during the global tour of Gladiator II, Paul Mescal turned his wrist into a small Cartier museum. At the London premiere he wore the 1963 Petit Santos in yellow gold, at theAcademy Gala in Los Angeles the more discreet but iconic Tank Louis Mini. For a private dinner party (Cartier for the cast of Gladiator II) Mescal chose a vintage 1977 Gondole, classic in every detail. For Australia, a very elegant Baignoire mini paired with a Gucci tuxedo and sunglasses; for Dublin, his 1960s Cartier Incurvée, refined, rare, and no-frills.
At the 67th Cannes Film Festival, Sebastian Stan wears a mini Panthère de Cartier, with a square dial and diamond-set crown, perfect for the Hollywood charm of the French carpet.
Also for the pop world, the perfect piece is a vintage mini Baignoire with sapphires and diamonds, worn by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. He is followed by Tyler, The Creator and Harry Styles, who often wear other Cartier models in smaller sizes.
Understanding trends: are “Mini Watch” here to stay?
Historically, mini watches have been the norm. From the beginning of the 20th century until the 1980s, the highest sense of watchmaking was to miniaturize the movement without sacrificing precision: thin, light, perfectly proportioned, symbols of status and technical mastery. It is with the boom of the
It is no coincidence, measurement, which is the new frontier of charisma today.
More than an accessory, the mini watch has become a sign of intention: discreet but assertive, perfectly aligned with the taste of an age that once again prefers proportion to presence.
There is also a stylistic truth: mini watches are better suited to the more fluid silhouettes and relaxed tailoring of contemporary, less gender-bound menswear.
The transition from the hypertrophic era has been rather gradual, driven by a combination of a passion for vintage collecting and the loosening of gender codes in watchmaking. If “women’s sizes” were once confined to cascades of stones and pavé bracelets, garish colors and floral designs, they now find a place on the wrists of men who see no contradiction in wearing small watches on large wrists.
And there is another truth: minis are more fun, and more creative. “When the signature shapes start to shrink down, their creativity is played up,” reads The ABC of Creativity. Their smaller size gives way to play, making unexpected materials, unconventional straps and colors, its new rules.
Conclusions
The mini, it is now Tank Américaine, Panthère, Baignoire, even Tortue. A variation in scale to which Cartier devotes an entire new section on the “Les Mini“, in which historical icons are reinterpreted in minute but perfectly proportioned dimensions.
In the feed, the icons of the Maison are reduced as if by play in a Wonderland to the size of chess squares and two-tone dominoes. All smaller, lighter, more intimate – dictating the grammar of this comeback. And the market, inevitably, follows, as in school desks: Piaget relaunches the 26 mm Limelight Gala, Chopard introduces a 25 mm Happy Sport Mini, Audemars Piguet reinterprets the Royal Oak in 23 mm format – a universe apart, built around a new idea of time.
That of the mini watch is a success with audiences and critics alike-a comeback that filled the room and took over the stage. A watch, but also a showpiece. One that deserves all the spotlight. And which, at least for 2025, leaves the curtain still open.
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