Is it time to move on from engagement rings? Here’s the new thing that’s been going around for quite some time. Global fashion platform Lyst has released its 2021 wedding report, giving us a preview of what trends we can expect brides, grooms and guests to adopt in the coming year. The highlight of the list is ‘engagement watch’.
According to data collected from the platform, searches for bridal mini dresses, embellished pants and rhinestone heels have steadily increased over the past quarter, and it has also been reported that you should “expect to see more fine watches and the rise of the engagement watch [in 2021].” Upon further research, there were reports that engagement watches were a thing dating back to 2017, but the coverage really picked up last year.
So what is an engagement watch? Women who are choosing to propose to their boyfriends are doing so with watches instead of rings. Another concept is that women who receive an engagement ring sometimes give it back by gifting their new fiancé a watch.
“In this time of increasing gender equality, shouldn’t we make this whole engagement deal more dialogue than monologue and encourage the women out there to express their commitment with a watch? In the same way, the ring a man selects for his wife reflects the way he perceives her, in that he has ideally chosen the correct ring to match her personality, the watch she, in turn, selects says a lot about how she perceives the man she’s about to spend her life with,” explains Mr Porter.
Throughout the last year, searches for watches including the term “wedding,” “couple” and “engagement” have spiked 42 per cent. Couples are also embracing gender-fluid wedding attires. After the finale of Schitt’s Creek showed Dan Levy’s David Rose tie the knot in a men’s skirt suit by Thom Browne, searches for “men’s wedding skirts” rose by 26 per cent year-on-year, as reported by Hypebae.