A Pop From Colour: Watch Brands Turn to Bold Hues to Boost Sales

As sales of luxury watches dim, brands are turning to colour to brighten the outlook. Dials coloured with Tiffany blues, Barbie pinks, sunny yellows and minty greens currently dominate brands’ online stores and Instagram feeds. But can distinctive colour provide more than a temporary pop in sales?

“Customers aren’t buying black dials any more,” said Georges Kern, Breitling chief executive. “Exotic colours like mint green have become our best sellers. It’s a reflection of society. People want a touch of colour because of all the bad news in the world.”

At Watches and Wonders Geneva in April this year, the annual watch fair where most new watches are launched, Rolex introduced a collection of Oyster Perpetual watches with “pistachio,” “beige,” “lavender” and “candy pink” dials. The independent H. Moser & Cie. released a compendium of watches with dials made from coloured gemstones called “Concept Pop.” Nomos Glashütte’s kaleidoscopic Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimers came with suffixes such as “jungle,” “canyon” and “magma.”

The colour splurge follows the recent successes of so-called “grail watches” from across the price spectrum, from Patek Philippe’s 2021 collaboration with Tiffany to the MoonSwatch range created by Swatch and Omega.

Oris co-chief executive Rolf Studer said this polychromatic approach to product design reflected the industry’s new purpose. “We’re in the entertainment industry,” he said. “Colour is a testament to the playfulness and casual energy that has filled our industry in the past few years.”

In recent years, Oris has collaborated with the Muppets, creating a lime-green dialled watch with Kermit the Frog and another with a bright fuchsia pink dial with Miss Piggy. Studer said his Kermit watch had been the company’s best-seller for two years. “Watches with bright or statement colours sell,” he said.

“Emotionally driven colour palettes are taking hold,” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. “Whether they’re craving comfort, unity or empowerment, people are looking to colour to express who they are and how they want others to perceive them.”

Then there’s shifting trends in how people express wealth and status — with some tastemakers reverting to unabashed excess after a fashion cycle dominated by more discreet, logo-free luxury. Malaika Crawford, a freelance stylist and editorial director at Hodinkee, said this is nothing new. “Think back to the late ’90s and the economic boom, and there was an explosion of excess with Tom Ford-era Gucci, [John] Galliano at Dior, Juicy Couture and oversize logos,” she said. “This was wealth that was meant to be seen [in contrast to] Calvin Klein-era beige minimalism.”

Some watch execs warn against using colour for colour’s sake. “Some brands are trying to push colour to be funky but they miss the step of why,” said George Bamford, whose Bamford Watch Department recently released the blue and orange Deep Diver with Girard-Perregaux. “Flick through social media and which watches pop off? Strong colours. But you can’t look at what’s trending this year and be me-too you’ve got to do your own thing.”

“A Tiffany dial is going to get larger recognition in the wider world, but is that about the colour or the hype? You can’t distinguish,” Crawford said.

While mostly male online communities including streetwear hounds and cryptocurrency investors fuelled surging interest in collecting coloured “grail” watches during the pandemic, women play a key role in sustaining demand. “When it comes to colour, women have more sensitivity than men,” said Benoît Mintiens, CEO of Ressence. Regarding French brand Baltic’s “Hermétique Summer”collection in pink, orange, yellow and turquoise, the idea behind this is to bring in more women, founder Etienne Malec said.

For newer brands, colour can signal disruption. “Expressing ourselves through colour has been a winner,” said Norqain founder Ben Küffer. “It allowed us to carve out a space.”

It’s also helped the brand make an impact with celebrity ambassadors. Last year, Mark Wahlberg wore Norqain’s Wild One with a turquoise strap on “The Late Show,” sending sales soaring. Tennis champion Stan Wawrinka wore the same watch on court — and invested in the company.

Pantone’s Pressman said colour is about more than simply looking for something bright and cheerful colour now evoked comfort and nostalgia. Pantone’s Color of the Year 2025 is a textured tone called Mocha Mousse. “Food tastes good and transports you,” she said.

Küffer noted that a new Norqain watch with pastel shades and an ice cream in the date window sold far better than expected. “It’s always summer somewhere,” he said.

Studio Underd0g has leaned fully into this “foodification” of colour, releasing watches inspired by pizza, watermelon and avocado since 2021. “Our palettes are inspired by objects that evoke emotion — your daughter’s favourite ice cream or a sunflower in bloom,” said owner Richard Benc.

Still, some in the industry are wary of using colours that could read as trendy or seasonal, which could undermine Swiss watches’ positioning as lifelong investments. “We are one of the industries where products are designed for the longest longevity in the world. If you follow fashion, after a year, you can’t wear it anymore. Would I make a watch that worked for two years? No one would buy it,” Ressence’s Mintiens agreed.

“Colour casts watches as impulse buys or seasonal pieces,” said critic Chris Hall, author of watch newsletter The Fourth Wheel. “Is it wise to reduce a luxury watch to a dopamine hit? Something about this smacks of short-term thinking.”

Still, data from Chrono24 suggests long-term appetite is growing. In 2020, black dials made up 40.9 percent of sales; by mid-2025, that had dropped to 34.5 percent. Pink rose from 0.4 percent to 1.0 percent.

But colourful watches may only serve a niche. “A watch is a big purchase,” said Crawford. “I can’t imagine for most people a colourful dial being their choice. Colourful dials are for the inherently wealthy buyer.”