Luxury watchmakers are churning out yellow gold watches, just as the mob wife aesthetic is taking over on TikTok. Bulgari and others attribute the trend to clients’ appetite for the solid investment that is gold in uncertain times.
TikTok has called time on stealth wealth dressing and ushered in a new era of Gen-Z “mob wives”, intent on swapping muted tailoring for look-at-me coats, latte shades for louche animal prints and clean-girl make-up for spider lashes. Carmela Soprano is coming for queen of Manhattan cool Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s spot at the top of Pinterest, and Ginger McKenna’s box of Bulgari jewels in Casino looks suddenly more covetable than Succession’s piles of Brunello Cucinelli cashmere.
At that time, Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly also favoured yellow gold watches – Taylor owned a collection of bedazzled Piaget timepieces, while Kelly wore a Rolex Lady-Datejust. Similarly, Breitling’s recent collaboration with Victoria Beckham incorporates a limited run of 100 yellow gold timepieces, Louis Vuitton has unveiled a yellow gold iteration of its signature Tambour watch, and Bulgari has reimagined its Octo watch in the same metal.