Blame it on the pendulum swing of fashion. Or the rising popularity of Cartier. Or fatigue with steel sport watches on integrated bracelets (not to mention their still eye-watering prices on the secondary market). But the dress watch—a classic timepiece typically defined by its slim profile and the fact that it comes on a strap (leather, faux leather, or otherwise)—is officially back.

To Asher Rapkin, cofounder and CEO of the independent watch e-tailer Collective Horology, the dress watch revival is a clear reaction to declining interest in sports watches.

“I’m selling far fewer integrated sport watches and far more dressier styles on straps,” he says. “I think fashion and style are cyclical. And we’ll be back at integrated sports watches in five to 10 years. We went super hard on integrated sports and that lemon has been squeezed.”

Indeed, after decades of sport watch dominance, brands and buyers are embracing traditional dress watch styles with newfound enthusiasm. Just look to some of the year’s most high-profile introductions, from the platinum Perpetual 1908 by Rolex to the new asymmetrical, Brutalism-inspired [Re]Master02 from Audemars Piguet.

Of all the competing theories about why the dress watch is ascendant, the most persuasive may be the one that emphasizes the individuality that the dress category allows. Unlike the sport watches that dominated the market for the better part of the past decade (and especially during the hype watch frenzy of the pandemic)—models like the Rolex Daytona, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and Patek Philippe Nautilus, all of which come in steel on integrated bracelets—dress watches come in all shapes and sizes, from the tortoise-like silhouette of the Cartier Privé Tortue to the organic Dali-esque curves of Sylvain Berneron’s cult favorite Mirage 38.

“Within the last two years, demand for steel sport watches was so high, everyone was wearing the same thing,” Kristen Shirley, founder of La Patiala, an online luxury encyclopedia, says. “If you want something different, you have to go in the opposite direction and that’s a dress watch. Otherwise, it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd.”

Top: With its 39 mm platinum case, ice blue guilloché dial, and brown alligator leather strap, the Rolex Perpetual 1908, which debuted in 2023 in a collection of 18k gold styles, is the epitome of a dress watch.

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