Why modern watchmakers are ditching the crown, from IWC to Ulysse Nardin
After almost 2 centuries of being a necessary evil in watch design, is the crown gradually being ushered into history?
For nearly two centuries, the crown has been an integral part not only of a timepiece’s mechanics but also of its visual DNA.
Its inception eventually replaced the winding key as the tactile link between a timepiece and its owner.
Before the crown, pocket watches required a separate key to wind – much like a grandfather clock – which was easily lost and invited dust through open apertures. The crown was a miracle of Victorian engineering: a single, sealed point of entry that could be wound, set and adjusted.
For close to two centuries, it became the gold standard in wristwatches, but it had its flaws – by its very nature, the crown is a compromise and a point of vulnerability. It is a protrusion on a circular form, a snagging hazard, and most critically, the point of entry for moisture and debris.
Richard Mille and Konstantin Chaykin, meanwhile, have removed the crown out of necessity – sacrificing it in pursuit of the record-breaking thinness achieved in the RM UP-01 and ThinKing respectively.
But as watchmakers bring fresh approaches to timekeeping, the crown’s role, both functional and aesthetic, is slowly being re-examined.
IWC Schaffhausen, for example, is no stranger to making utilitarian timepieces. At Watches and Wonders, the brand unveiled the Pilot’s Watch Venturer Vertical Drive, rethinking how movements are brought to life.