If you’re into watches and you’ve spent more than a few minutes flicking through Tiktok’s seemingly endless cavalcade of memes, skits and carefully choreographed dealer negotiations, you’ll likely be familiar with Mike Nouveau, the Cartier-loving DJ-cum-watch-dealer whose snappy takes and roster of recurring personalities has earned him over 400,000 followers and a sport as one of the pre-eminent members of Watchtok. You’ll also likely have heard him declare an obscure 70s or 80s watch a ‘geezer watch’, an emerging genre in vintage watches gaining more and more traction. Often he’s referring to one of certified-geezer Phil Toledano’s watches.  So what exactly is a geezer watch? Well, the first step is to determine what a geezer is.

If you didn’t grow up speaking British English, there’s a decent chance you’re not across the concept of a geezer — and even then, it’s not a given if you were born in the 1990s or later. A geezer is fundamentally an older man. But it’s more nuanced than that. There’s an edge to the term. At its most basic, it can be used as a descriptive term for someone you don’t know. There’s also an element of cool to it — if someone is a bit of a geezer, they know what’s up — they’re reliable. If you want to go full cockney with it, there’s a ‘diamond geezer’, an exceptionally solid recommendation for a great guy. It works especially well if you throw in a soundtrack by Blur. But how do Geezers relate to watches?

Well, it’s a watch of a certain age — or, to be more specific, a watch worn by someone of a certain age. Under the right circumstances, an Oyster-cased Rolex could be a geezer watch, but an Omega Speedmaster really isn’t. We asked Adam Golden, a noted dealer and founder of Menta Watches, what the defining characteristic of a geezer watch is, and here’s what he says, “You can define a geezer watch as a watch of a bygone era that you would think would be a watch only desired by older people; watches that are not ‘in fashion’ so to speak.”

Golden goes on to explain that the interest is emerging from a desire for something new. “There’s been a push from collectors to finally break out of their comfort zone and wear something that is different and creative, and with that comes a lot of jewelry-influenced watches, such as those with bejeweled dials or integrated bracelets.”

If you’ll forgive us for staying on TikTok a little longer, there’s a trend from the land of fashion that is, in many ways, geezer watch-adjacent — the mob wife aesthetic. At its heart, this big-hair, big-fur look (think Edie Falco in the Sopranos) is an expression of wealth and status set outside of the norms of conventional society and the nouveau riche. It’s mob wife, not Monaco wife, after all. James Gandolfini is a great example of a diamond geezer, by the way. There’s a synergy to be found between the mob wife aesthetic and geezer watches, too — both have been popularized by a Gen-Z/Alpha too young to have experienced this era of style and design the first time around. They’re also looking for signifiers of class and status, but signifiers that also offer an alternative to the status quo. For watches, this is a difficult path to walk, as there’s been such intense interest in mainstream brands over the last decade that it’s challenging to find an outlier that offers name recognition.

To that end, this new generation of aspirational collectors has found an under-appreciated cache of watches: dressy, design-driven jewelry pieces from the 70s and 80s, often defined by their impressive bracelets. As with all emerging trends, the geezer watch isn’t particularly well-defined and, in many cases, is more about an attitude and a state of mind than the right reference number. But there are certainly some commonalities. The Piaget Polo, the Audemars Piguet ‘Cobra’, even a two-tone Datejust on a rattly bracelet — these are all geezer watches. Although perhaps the safest litmus test for a geezer watch is whether or not it would look the part on an older chap down at the local, or failing that, if you could you imagine it on De Niro’s wrist in his gangster era, or worn by Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast.

Audemars Piguet’s other integrated bracelets

Audemars Piguet is a brand best known for the almighty Royal Oak, and rightfully so. Gerald Genta‘s iconic 1972 has spawned an entire industry of lookalikes, but the original reference 5402 Royal Oak wasn’t the only Genta-designed integrated bracelet watch that Audemars Piguet released that year. Coming in right after the RO in the catalogue is the reference 5403, known to collectors as the ‘Cobra’.

Its serpentine woven bracelet seamlessly integrated into a flared case makes it impossible to tell where the case ends and the bracelet begins. Made in white and yellow gold, the Reference 5403 features a pared-back dial, most commonly seen in rich blue or yellow gold tones, with small diamond hour markers and simple baton hands. It’s a dial that (wisely) doesn’t try to compete with the case and bracelet.

Audemars Piguet and Gerald Genta are the most famous names attached to the Cobra, but there’s another that is arguably the most important —Roland-Gilbert Gaschen (also referred to as just Gilbert Gaschen in some sources), the jeweller who created the bracelet, as evidenced by the GRG signature on the bracelet. It’s rare for a bracelet maker, a vital part of the établissage system, to receive recognition these days, with Gay Frères being the main exception.

One important consideration in this era of jewellery-like bracelet watches is that resizing is an issue, and they often require cutting or customisation to fit. However, thanks to the work of Gaschen and their peers, the quality of these heavy, custom bracelets still holds up today.

Models like the Cobra and its equally chic sibling, the ‘Bamboo’, are grounded in a very specific cultural moment. For Golden, this sort of design, be it from Audemars Piguet or others, “came out of an era of conspicuous consumption, excess, and a strong focus on jewellery and design. Brands were experimenting with different case styles and bracelet styles. Today, they appeal to the collector who wants to wear something a little more unique, someone who wants to start a conversation.”

Piaget’s take on the Geezer watch

Speaking of conversation starters, another champion of the nascent geezer genre is the Piaget Polo — conceived in 1979 as Piaget’s ultimate high-luxury take on a sports watch, the Polo has been enjoying a renaissance in recent years, thanks in no small part to the incredibly faithful Piaget Polo 79, a reissue which will surely be seen as the first indicator of the geezer trend going mainstream. After all, the Polo 79 didn’t emerge from a vacuum; it was responding to an organic groundswell of demand 45 years after its debut. It’s also a better-known example of the genre, thanks to high-profile wearers like Robert De Niro (it’s his go-to in Casino) and Sylvester Stallone (epitomizing the trans-continental Geezer/Mob Wife aesthetic crossover).

Beyond this, the Polo has, thanks to Piaget’s jewelry bona fides, an incredible quality bracelet that is the defining element of the watch. There’s also an emerging interest in the diversity of Polo models. Vintage Piaget of the 70s and 80s is particularly fertile ground for geezer watches where the brand’s skill in both slender movements and jewelry finishes is practically unparalleled. Models such as the cuff-like Reference 935, and the incredible white gold brick-link bracelet of the Reference 9401, made famous by French entertainer Maurice Chevelier.

As always, Rolex wears the Crown

The ultimate Geezer Watch, at least according to Menta’s Adam Golden, is the Rolex King Midas Cellini. “Strictly from a recognition standpoint, the Midas takes the crown” he claims, fully aware of the pun. If you had asked anyone about the Midas 10 or even five years ago, there’s a good chance they would have no idea what you were talking about, but the gadrooned, sculptural watch has a long history. It’s the epitome of 70s chic, but it dates back to as early as 1962. At the heart of the Midas’ appeal is, of course, gold.

According to Nick Foulkes, writing about the Midas for Revolution, the Midas is a watch best experienced in person, “Once worn, the Midas is impossible to forget; it weighs on the wrist like an 18K gold manacle rather than a watch. But there was much more to it than simply a large quantity of precious metal. The bracelet, composed of articulated ingots, was closer in appearance to the tracks of a tank than the conventional watch bracelet. The case and bracelet were not merely harmonious; it was impossible to tell where the head of the watch ended and the bracelet began.” As with all the geezer watches we’ve discussed, they’re rare birds, made in limited numbers to begin with, and even harder to find today. It’s also exceptionally unlikely that Rolex will ever make a watch like this again, making the Midas a rightful monarch.

A different take on Patek

Throughout the 20th century, Patek Philippe made a lot of its watches on jewelry style bracelets, capturing the zeitgeist of this period when watches transitioned to the wrist and thus became an expression of style. The manufacture worked with many of the best bracelet makers of the time, among the best known till today is undoubtedly Gay Frères. But there were many others as well, including Jean Pierre Ecoffey whose stunning mesh gold bracelets are truly the stuff of dreams.

Magnificent Vacheron Constantin

Likewise, Vacheron Constantin produced a good many of its 20th century watches on bracelets of innumerable styles, and this is for both men and women. You can see how the aesthetic transitioned from the Art Deco era to the sleek elegance of the 50s and then on to more elaborate designs during the 60s and 70s, culminating in one of its best loved creations of all time, the famous Historiques Ref. 222 with its hexagonal links. The manufacture worked closely with many of the great bracelet and jewelry makers including Verger Frères who also brought its case making and gem-setting expertise into the picture.

The Geezer Watch trend isn’t for everyone, and that’s the point. Historically obscure jewelry watches in 2024 are a niche proposition. Adam Golden has some advice for people interested in exploring their inner geezer: “People are always looking for the next big thing, something that no one is looking at, and that has a lot of growth potential. That being said, you can’t buy these watches unless you actually like them, as they are certainly not for everyone, and a lot of them are very hard to find, making the hunt fun!”