This Is the Most Controversial Way to Wear a Watch

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Back in January, Timothée Chalamet captured the watch world’s attention when he showed up at the Palm Springs International Film Festival with not one, but two mini Cartier Tanks on a single wrist, alongside one of the Parisian jeweler’s famous Love bracelets. It was reminiscent of a flex that Rihanna pulled off last fall, when she nestled her gold Audemars Piguet mini Royal Oak against a gaggle of diamond bangles. And just this past December, Jaclyn Li—GQ’s reigning Watch Collector of the Year—caused waves in collecting circles when she dared to wear her ultra-rare Berneron Mirage alongside a gem-set gold bracelet.

Among watch folks, this act of complementing your watch with further wristwear is called “stacking.” And while the trend is growing evermore popular, it remains as controversial to some as adding aftermarket ice to a Rolex. When I asked about stacking in a collectors group chat, nearly all of the respondents identified strongly as Team Anti-Stack. “Stacking should be punishable by law,” one person wrote. Another added: “I’ve been convinced. Execute the stackers!”

@mr.a

So what really is stacking, exactly? Why do certain collectors hate it so much? And, if you’re going to stack anyway—as I believe is your inalienable right—how can you do it correctly?

What’s a Stack?

Stacking is not to be confused with double wristing—a.k.a. Going Schwarzkopf Mode, a phrase I just made up in reference to General Norman Schwarzkopf, the late US military commander who famously wore a watch on each wrist. Neither does stacking have anything to do with “stacks,” the hip-hop slang term for bands of $1,000 cash. Instead, stacking refers to when someone surrounds the watch on their wrist with additional bracelets, bangles, cuffs, or even other watches. A sort of timepiece ice cream sundae, if you will. (I suppose you could hypothetically stack on both wrists, creating the ultimate in watch purist faux pas.)

Michelle Sylvestre-Williams

When I asked Berneron’s founder, Sylvain Berneron, how he felt about Li stacking her Mirage, he was even-keeled. “We have to let that one go,” he told me via DM. “In this case, I am very happy to see [Jaclyn] stack on a Mirage, because it means our brand is in pulse with the culture.” That’s not to say, however, that he would ever partake in the practice himself: “I personally don’t stack, BUT that’s a professional bias on my end because I know how much time it takes to deliver impeccably polished gold cases like we do.”

Team Anti-Stack

While Berneron seems to accept that times are changing and that the contingent of pro-stackers is growing, like any good innovation, stacking continues to face Luddite-like opposition from other corners of the watch world. Asking a stacking hater why they oppose the practice is like opening a can of Pringles: once you pop the question, the reasons won’t stop. Mack Chami, a noted watch collector and musician, sent me back a lengthy list of five reasons he doesn’t stack. For the most part, however, the complaints fall into two buckets:

As far as aesthetics are concerned, “it doesn’t enhance [a watch] at all,” according to Dominic, a collector. “It’s like putting a bumper sticker on a car. A watch is enough to stand alone, and anything extra around it just takes it away from it visually.”

@OldWatchLady

Chani agreed. “A watch is the ultimate accessory, why detract from it?” He also had more practical concerns: “[I don’t want] so much stuff on my wrists that it gets in the way of putting on sweaters and jackets,” he wrote. “Also there’s more stuff to get attached to something like a door handle.”

The biggest danger of all when it comes to stacking, however, is the damage it could cause to your watch. A metal bracelet rubbing up against a delicate timepiece all day certainly feels like a recipe for scratches. “There’s potential to severely damage the case,” Dominic said.

@mr.a

But while you should be aware of the risks, scratches are a personal decision. Many collectors love the patina that comes when a watch is well-loved and worn often—the marks left by stacking included. “To be honest, scratches don’t matter to me—it adds character to my watches,” said Michelle Sylvestre-Williams, the founder of luxury watch retailer DavidSW and the proud owner of the most impressive stack I’ve ever seen in person.

“Without some patina on the gold, can you really say it's yours?” added Alessandro Fanciulli, the collector and dealer better known as Mr.A, and a master stacker in his own right.

It depends, too, on what type of watch you’re stacking. For vintage collectors, scratches are often part and parcel of what they love about their timepieces. “I couldn’t care less about pieces potentially scratching one another,” @OldWatchLady told me. “My watches are vintage, so not every piece is pristine. Bit like myself.”

How to Stack, According to the Experts

Fanciulli ultimately sees all the resistance to stacking as a positive: “More stacks for us,” he told me. It’s a good point: In the arms race for small stackable timepieces and complementary bracelets, there can’t be infinite winners.

Michelle Sylvestre-Williams

Proper stacking is a difficult skill to acquire. “It’s like a precarious game of tasteful Jenga, there’s a fine line between too much and perfect,” Fanciulli said. More than just wearing a watch alone, the practice requires an instinctual sense of style—the same way an outfit can’t rely on an awesome pair of pants or vintage Jordans alone. “Stacking shows off [the wearer’s] personality and style,” Sylvestre-Williams said.

As such, our experts mostly agreed there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to stacking. “No rules are the best rules,” Fanciulli emphasized. Sylvestre-Williams, who doesn’t mind mixing brands or metals, switches her stacks up to reflect the seasons. “During spring and summer, I add more colors like turquoise, pink mother of pearl, or malachite.”

The best advice came from @OldWatchLady, who organizes her stacks around a single theme. “Either the same brand like Cartier—I have a passion for three or four Baignoires at a time or two larger Santos models—or 26-mm stone-dial Rolexes is another fave,” she said. But even here, the rules fall apart quickly. “I’m not anal about sticking to one brand at a time,” @OldWatchLady added. “It’s sometimes about matching the shapes and other times about complete mismatches.”

@mr.a

Maybe the easiest approach to stacking is to simply chase your passions. Fanciulli tends to stick with his favorite yellow-gold pieces and then add color where he can. Don’t let the absence of rules deter you from stacking. Instead, it should give you confidence. As Sylvestre-Williams told me, “All stacks are beautiful.”

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