Why Paul Mescal Wearing Cartier's Tiniest Watch Is Such a Big Deal

For the September issue of GQ, I wrote about the raging debate in the watch world between teeny-tiny watches and their outsized counterparts. The tug-of-war has decidedly gone toward teensy pieces over the past few years, although a loud contingent refuses to cage their epic 45-mm wristwear. But those beasts took another critical hit this weekend at the Annual Academy Museum Gala where Paul Mescal and Dwyane Wade showed up with some revealing weaponry of choice. Wade wore the Tiffany & Co. Eternity watch, a 28-mm ladies watch smaller than a half-dollar coin, and October’s GQ cover star Mescal chose the diminutive watch of 2024, the bite-sized version of the Cartier Tank.

While watches have been trending smaller, with some adventurous dressers like Timothée Chamalet and Bad Bunny sporting ladies’ watches, it’s now fully breaking into the mainstream. Let’s explain this in Pokémon terms, because that’s what we’re all familiar with, right? You gave your trend a Paul Mescal Stone. What? Your trend is evolving! Congratulations, it’s now the mainstream aesthetic!

Mescal’s tiny Tank was one of the conversation pieces at this year’s Watches & Wonders, the industry’s biggest tradeshow. The shrunken Tank replicates its larger counterpart in every way—providing all of the iconic Cartier details in smaller packaging. Much smaller: the TTT (teeny-tiny Tank) measures in at an adorable 24 by 16.5 mm.

The TTT was Cartier’s follow-up to 2023’s smash-hit Bagnoire Bangle, a product the Parisian jeweler still can’t keep in stock. I bring the Bangle up because it demonstrates how quickly trends can move. While many male collectors acknowledged the beauty of the Bangle upon its release, few dared to actually wear it. Even those who did, like the super stylish Mark Cho, wore it as a bracelet and hid it under suit sleeves. Now, just a year later, celebrities are proudly wearing equally small watches on the red carpet.

And it’s not just Mescal riding the delightfully small ripples of the tiny watch trend. Wade showed up to the same event with an equally pint-sized piece. Wade takes his wristwear seriously—so much so that his stylist Jason Bolden told me he hems his client’s suit sleeves a touch shorter to set the stage for his watches. That makes Wade’s fashion statement last night ring that much louder.

The former hooper’s Eternity watch from Tiffany & Co. bears all the traditional trappings of a quote-unquote ladies’ watch. It’s not just about the size, either. The 28-mm case has long been verboten in men’s collections, but in combination with the cutesy indices that are cut like hearts and teardrops, the cushion case, and round diamonds (rather than baguettes) set on the bezel, this is the very emblem of a watch typically designed for women. Many of these gendered markers are becoming obsolete as we downshift in size. Wade is moving the conversation in the right direction: there is nothing inherently gendered about a watch, and we should all be free to wear whatever we like rather than have it prescribed to us based on our gender identity.

Clearly, the industry understands how important these smaller pieces are becoming to collectors. Many brands followed Cartier’s footsteps this year and started making their own fun-sized watches. Hublot brought back a version of its Classic Fusion Original that clocks in under 30 mm. Audemars Piguet hit its tentpole Royal Oak model with the shrink ray, reducing its proportions dramatically to 23 mm. If you haven’t already decided to get your own tiny watch, there will be plenty of options when you finally decide to add one to your collection. Today it’s Paul Mescal; tomorrow, hopefully, it’s you.