Calvin Klein Watches

History

Calvin Klein is a classic fashion brand known for its excellence and style, always seeking bold and progressive styles that are perfect for the modern man or woman. With a New York state of mind, the fashion house is a popular household name. Their brand is about being seductive, yet classic, founded in 1968, by namesake Calvin Klein. As an American brand, the designs are clean and innovative and capture the country’s spirit. As of 2019, they became a multibillion-dollar company across 110 countries: truly global with an American aesthetic root.

As a fashion house, Calvin Klein is essentially cool girl fashion (and cool boy, they expanded into menswear as well). With Klein’s history as a graduate from FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), he specialized in fine arts, and haute couture fashion in several companies before he really promoted his own designs. As his talent was recognized, he gained steam to start his own business, the Calvin Klein we know and love today. What started as luck with funding and collaborations led to success, with ever popular fashion shows and the brand being seen as the up and coming designer to watch. As the brand skyrocketed, Klein won awards for his styles, and self-funded his own fragrance line (the first of the industry to do so).

The 80s were the first peak of Calvin Klein’s brand like we know today; rather than shows or clothing releases on a seasonal basis, the brand focused on pushing the limits with bold advertising in print and television. These photoshoots led to the brand being the idea associated with garments, and the go to brand for the hit piece, like jeans or underwear, especially with the advertisements with Brooke Shields. The brand didn’t make jeans, the brand was jeans. While their 90s lines and menswear collections weren’t as popular, the brand bounced back and solidified themselves in the market, even to this point today.

Calvin Klein produces a variety of other products in addition to clothes and fragrance, like lingerie (an incredibly popular line), and jewelry. This was a way for the brand to expand to a new market and offer more styles for shoppers, creating a head to toe look in the brand’s pieces. Particularly of interest are their watches, for both men and women. Since 1997, the Calvin Klein brand collaborated with the Swatch group to design and manufacture watches. These watches aren’t sought by watch aficionados, but they are popular amongst daily wearers and lovers of fashion, as well as the brand as a whole.

Price and Investment

Calvin Klein watches are intended as fashion watches; with this designation, this means they are more focused on design and less on technology. They have basic, lower-cost quartz functions and movements, but are great accessories to outfits. The watches range from $150 to $300 generally, making them a good fashion investment. Since they’re partnered with the Swatch Group, they automatically carry that Swiss made quality and assurance the brand is known and loved for, which makes them good quality and a great value.

Key Styles

The Calvin Klein brand has a variety of watch styles, and it is impossible to list them all, though there are some styles that are incredibly noteworthy and beautiful.

Fraternity Watch

The fraternity watch is a bold and eye-catching time piece. It comes in a variety of colors, from subdued to bold like cobalt blue, and has a leather strap. The stainless-steel case combined with the leather band are simple yet stylish, with a masculine touch on a feminine shape.

 Rise Face

Another iconic style, the rise face is unique and modern, making it the perfect fashion accessory. With thin leather bands in a variety of colors and a metal accented body, the face is split in two and almost looks like a sunrise. This chic combination is often in black or white, or in other neutral colorways. With a lack of numbers on the face, you get a truly minimal look.

Minimal Watch

The brand is obviously minimalist as a whole, but the minimal watch is a style that really embraces that aesthetic and brings the wearer a lot of versatility and style. The minimal watch comes in a variety of metal color ways, like rose gold, and is on a simple leather strap. The dial features both the date and the central hours, minutes, and seconds. This is a watch that will appeal to many, because it is functional, simple enough to complement many personal styles, and is a great layering piece.

Statement Watch

Shying away from the style seen across the Calvin Klein watch brand is the statement watch, a timepiece that acts more as a functional bracelet. Plated in beautiful metals, like metal gold, the watch has a simple, ovular face with no details, and a gorgeous, chain link bracelet band. Layer up, or wear as a more evening focused watch style.

Historical Aside

The brand’s advertising history was nothing short of controversial, yet highly successful. With their original print and tv ads, they were able to raise major influence and capital, in the fashion world.

The watch line itself had a major switch when Raf Simons took over the label as the new Creative Director in 2016. As a Belgian fashion designer, he reimagined the collections with youthful relaxation, often inspired by hip-hop, electronic, and post-punk music. All forms of art collide in the Calvin Klein brand. These new designs are casual and classic America, meaning denim, leather, and chrome; everything you would think of when you think of the tough American aesthetic Calvin Klein built. These watches are complemented by other jewelry in the line like large Calvin Klein logos and steel mesh bracelets

Style Influence

Calvin Klein watches are inspired by the brand’s overall energy and style, with an energetic, sexy, modern, and casual fusion. The watches are minimalist yet crisp, and the style matches perfectly with other pieces from their line. The pieces are seen as a dressier style watch with the minimal visuals on the face. There’s usually an unassuming dial on the face, and even the chronographs are more minimal in appearance. The watches are both men and women’s collections, though overall, they are unisex in style and appealing to many.

Care, Materials, and Technology

Since the watch partnership is with Swatch, ETA quartz movement powers the timepiece. This is a trusted and loved method of watch operation. The minimal designs have a stainless-steel finish or PVD coating, both of which are durable and long lasting. The crystal component of the watch is mineral glass.

Although a fashion piece, care is still essential for the long lifespan of your watch. This includes regular polishing and maintenance. The coatings are durable, but still benefit from a freshening up.

Social Commitment 

As a brand that has been around for many years and is constantly in the spotlight, Calvin Klein as a whole share a common ethos of social commitment, whether its clothing, jewelry, fragrance, or watches. The brand has been taking steps towards sustainability in manufacturing, being more considerate of natural resources and the social impact of fashion. They also have global efforts to improve human rights, labor practices, and chemical management. With all these global programs, a Calvin Klein watch is one you can feel good about buying.