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2023 Was the Year of the Purple Watch

I blame Grimace’s birthday.

a group of watchesRowing Blazers, Christopher Ward, Patek Philippe

By Johnny Brayson

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We’ve seen a number of unique annual trends pop up in the watch industry over the past several years. 2018 was the year of the Pepsi, with both Rolex and Tudor releasing new red-and-blue-bezeled GMTs and various other brands following suit. In 2021, it was watches with green dials that were stealing all the headlines. And in 2023, the trend I spotted most was a color from the opposite side of the color wheel (and, coincidentally, the color you get when you mix the red and blue of a Pepsi bezel). Purple was everywhere on watches over the past year, on dials and bezels and bracelets from Seiko to microbrands to Patek Philippe.

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Truth be told, the purple trend really kicked off in 2022. That year saw hyped purple-dial variants of such touchstone luxury watches as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, TAG Heuer Monaco and Hublot Big Bang find their way onto wrists, along with a handful of more affordable options from brands like Nomos and Seiko’s King Seiko line. Prior to that, the color was rare to see on a watch face and was almost exclusively seen on high-end timepieces from brands like Zenith, Moser and Rolex, unintentionally mimicking how purple clothing was reserved for royalty in antiquity.

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But 2023 saw the democratization of purple on a large scale across the watch industry’s ultra-wide price spectrum. This is likely an extension of the general larger trend toward colorful dials we’ve seen in the industry since Rolex revamped the Oyster Perpetual with a series of bright shades in 2020, but why such a focus on purple? Is it because McDonald’s mascot Grimace celebrated a birthday in 2023 with a purple-tinged milkshake that spawned a viral TikTok trend? Is it an example of brands playing a game of “me, too!”? Or is it simply because purple looks good and is a lot easier to wear than people think?

I don’t know the reason, but I do know that 2023 saw more purple watches than any year in recent memory. Below are my favorites.

Seiko x Rowing Blazers

For its second go-around with Seiko early in 2023, preppy clothing brand Rowing Blazers continued its parade of colorful dials for the Seiko 5, with one of the four options for this year being this brilliant royal purple. All of the watches are long sold out, but given that the two brands have collaborated each of the last two years, I’d bet we’ll see a third series come 2024.

Seiko

Even without Rowing Blazers’ help, Seiko was churning out purple watches in 2023. This Presage GMT model, along with a similarly styled three-hander in the same color, were released in the first week of January, quickly establishing that 2023 would be a purple year for the Japanese brand.

Grand Seiko

Why let standard Seiko have all the purple fun? Luxury brand Grand Seiko also got in on the act late in the year, releasing a trio of limited editions exclusive to retailer Watches of Switzerland in dark gray, bright green and this gorgeous light purple. The purple shade of the dial was inspired by the “dynamic nighttime cosmos” above Miyako, Japan’s Jodogahama Beach.

Orient

Fellow Japanese brand and pseudo-Seiko subsidiary Orient also showed some love to violet this year as part of one of its biggest releases. The brand launched a smaller 40mm dive watch as an alternative to its standard 42mm divers, and this interesting lilac was one of the five colors available at launch alongside more traditional shades like black, blue and white — a testament to the color’s growing popularity.

Oris

Each year for the past several years, Oris has released a special limited edition model dedicated to its hometown of Hölstein, Switzerland. For 2023, the brand chose to slap a purple dial on its Aquis diver, because what else would be a better representation of this year in watches? According to Oris, it’s the brand’s first purple dial after many requests from fans of the brand. The watch also continues the purple theme when you flip it over, as it features a purple caseback decorated with the Oris Bear mascot in scuba gear.

Christopher Ward

Perhaps no brand used purple as frequently or as effectively as Christopher Ward did in 2023 (not included in this guide is the limited-edition “Foxglove Purple” Sealander 36 from the spring). After immediately selling out of the industry-shaking Bel Canto chiming watch after the initial blue-dialed limited edition was announced in late 2022, CW made four new colors available to kick off 2023, with the most desirable arguably being this plum stunner.

Christopher Ward

Speaking of desirable Christopher Wards, the “Nebula Purple” titanium version of the brand’s other major 2023, the integrated bracelet Twelve, has basically been impossible to get a hold of since its launch in the spring. The fumé dial in that saturated Thanos-esque shade has proven especially tempting when paired with the dark titanium case and bracelet, and this reference currently sits atop my personal wishlist for 2024.

Jack Mason

Who says only dials can be purple? Texas microbrand Jack Mason took a different approach for its purple watch era by mixing up the colors on its Strat-o-timer GMT for this 100-piece limited edition. This Joker-inspired version of the watch swaps out the blue of the classic “Batman” GMT’s bezel and fourth hand for purple versions of each. The result is a clever alternative to that watch by using the Caped Crusader’s greatest villain as its muse.

G-Shock

G-Shock goes even further away from the dial for its 2023 purple watch, using purple throughout the case and bracelet of this piece. Well, if you want to get technical, this watch actually isn’t purple at all. Its carbon bezel, case and bracelet are black with swirls of blue and pink resin. The overall visual effect is a purple watch, made extra special by the fact that this was created to celebrate the brand’s 40th anniversary.

Parmigiani Fleurier x Revolution

I think it’s safe to say Revolution founder Wei Koh has an affinity for purple dials, as he also teamed up with lesser-known indy watchmaker Torsti Laine for a series of 12 one-off purple-dial watches in September. But slightly more accessible is this team-up with Parmigiani Fleurier that puts a subdued purple dial on the brand’s elegant Tonda PF Micro-Rotor. The goal of the watch was to achieve a “quiet luxury” vibe, making it even more suitable for 2023.

Baltic

Baltic quite literally crafted its most impressive watch ever in 2023 for the charity event Only Watch, and the brand fittingly swathed it in the color of royalty. The French microbrand — through its new watchmaking studio Baltic Experiments and in collaboration with Swiss manufacture Maclef — created its own perpetual calendar module for this watch, fitted to a Vaucher VMF 5401 Micro-rotor extra-slim. And since Only Watch ended up being postponed until next year, it looks like the purple party will continue in 2024.

Girard-Perragaux

Girard-Perragaux’s purple effort of 2023 was less a product of style than of necessity — the purple on the dial is delivered discreetly via the silicium blade at the heart of the Calibre GP09200’s unique constant-force escapement that keeps the rate of movement constant even as its power reserve runs down. An evolution of GP’s original Constant Escapement from a decade ago, the new purple-tinged version features several refinements, including a smaller and more wearable case, a seven-day power reserve and COSC certification.

Patek Philippe

Patek is not Audemars Piguet — I don’t see the brand collaborating with superheroes or rappers any time soon. Patek is more conservative and traditional, but even it couldn’t resist the purple siren’s song in 2023. At the Maison’s “Watch Art” Tokyo 2023 event in June, Patek unveiled a number of limited-edition novelties, but none more head-turning than this gorgeous version of its classic World Time. But the aubergine shade isn’t the only special thing about this travel watch: It’s also the first Patek World Time with a date display.

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