Tiffany & Co.’s New Tiffany Timer Is a Serious Chronograph With a Jeweler’s Soul

It’s easy to forget that Tiffany & Co. is a watchmaker. The New York house is synonymous with diamonds and its robin’s-egg-blue box, but its horological history runs deep: it began retailing watches in 1847 and, in 1866, introduced its first chronograph. That anniversary, 160 years on, is the occasion for the Tiffany Timer Titanium Platinum, a 100-piece limited edition unveiled today that takes the brand’s watchmaking more seriously than its jewelry reputation might suggest.

The heritage is real. Two years after that 1866 “Timing Watch,” Tiffany’s first stopwatch, the house renamed it the Timer and opened a watch-assembly workshop in Switzerland; by 1874 it was running a full manufacture in Geneva, producing chronographs and calendar watches. The new Timer is the second of a two-part anniversary series, following a 60-piece platinum edition with a Tiffany Blue dial released earlier this year.

What makes this a watch enthusiast’s Tiffany rather than a fashion piece is what’s inside: a customized Zenith El Primero 400, one of the most storied chronograph calibers in existence. When Zenith launched the El Primero in 1969, it was the world’s first integrated automatic chronograph, and its high-beat, column-wheel construction remains a benchmark today. Its classic three-register layout, chronograph minutes at three, hours at six above the date, and running seconds at nine, is as legible as chronographs get. That Tiffany can reach for it is a quiet benefit of its place within LVMH, alongside Zenith.

Tiffany’s own signature shows up where it counts. The 40mm case is satin-brushed Grade 5 titanium with a platinum bezel, its chronograph pushers curved into the case profile to double as crown guards. The sunray dark blue dial is accented with Tiffany Blue on the sub-dial markers, the outer seconds track, and the date, a restrained nod to the house’s Blue Books. The showpiece, though, is on the back. Through the sapphire caseback, the open-worked rotor carries a miniature of the Bird on a Rock, the motif Jean Schlumberger designed for Tiffany’s most famous brooch, sculpted by hand from a solid block of 18k yellow gold, just 1.4 centimeters wide, and hand-polished with diamond abrasives and sticks of gentian wood. It’s the kind of detail only a jewelry house would attempt, and it turns the winding weight into a small piece of Tiffany artistry.

The rest is properly specified: 50 hours of power reserve, 100 meters of water resistance, and a navy alligator strap on a titanium-and-steel folding clasp. This is not a watch pretending to be jewelry, nor jewelry pretending to be a watch. It’s a legitimate Swiss chronograph, built on a legendary movement, and finished with a flourish no traditional watchmaker could pull off.

Limited to 100 pieces and available from September, the Tiffany Timer is a small statement with a large idea behind it: that Tiffany’s watchmaking deserves to be taken as seriously as its jewelry. On the evidence of an El Primero wearing a hand-carved golden bird, it’s a case worth hearing.

Adrienne Faurote

Editor in Chief · Haute Time

As a former New Yorker, now a “Miamian,” Adrienne Faurote joined Haute Living in August of 2021. She currently serves as the Haute Media Group Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial platforms within the Haute Media Group while also maintaining her role as Fashion, Jewelry & Watch Director. Prior to her position at Haute Living, Faurote was the Market Editor at Marie Claire Magazine US, amassing over ten years in the industry, becoming an authoritative voice in all things fashion, jewelry, and watches.