Since Rihanna graced us with her watch-as-choker styling trick back in 2023, we’ve seen countless variations on the theme. Watches layered over sleeves, strapped around ankles, dangling from handbags or, in the case of Louis Vuitton’s Monterey, worn as pendants and even attached to chain belts on the runway. At this point, there can’t be many places left to put one. Which makes the wrist seem almost novel again. Specifically, a watch with a strap long enough to wrap around it twice. That extra length of leather is there to be played with and styled, not simply buckled. It makes an otherwise sensible object feel a little more personal, perhaps even a little more punk.
The idea of experimenting with how a leather-strap watch sits on the wrist is hardly new. In the early 1970s, Cartier’s famously experimental London workshop produced an unusual rectangular gold watch fitted with two separate leather straps and matching buckles. But it was Martin Margiela who gave the double-wrap its modern fashion identity.
Stella Tennant wearing her OG Hermès Cape Cod double strap watch to the Chanel Haute-Couture autumn/winter show in 2013.
During his tenure at Hermès, from 1997 to 2003, Margiela, fashion’s great deconstructionist, proved surprisingly reverent toward the house’s discreet, horsey timelessness, though his instinct for repurposing still crept in. The Double Tour originated from a vintage leather suitcase strap he had discovered as a student, which he realised could also be worn twice around the waist as a belt. In 1998, he applied the same principle to Henri d’Origny’s Cape Cod, a 1991 design whose distinctive rectangular case took inspiration from the links of Hermès’s Chaîne d’Ancre bracelet, giving the watch an unexpected edge. It found a most persuasive ambassador in Stella Tennant – “the coolest woman in the world and original Margiela icon”, according to British contributing editor Olivia Singer – who always wore one.
Leather straps have a way of bundling together several desirable fashion codes: equestrian, prep and perhaps even a hint of S&M. From the studded wristbands of the punk and New Wave scenes (and, unfortunately, Avril Lavigne too) to the multi-wrap motorcycle bracelets associated with Nicolas Ghesquière-era Balenciaga, leather wound around the wrist has never quite lost its subversive charge. That attitude ran through womenswear artistic director Nadège Vanhée’s spring/summer 2027 collection for Hermès, which leaned into the house’s harness-making roots: skinny belts buckled over bare midriffs, a strap fastened across a jacket collar, and wide leather cuffs stacked two and three deep up the wrist. One model wore a leather cord wound twice around her neck and fastened with a toggle – a double tour worn as a choker. The double-wrap watch can swing either way. Worn snugly, it can look almost prim; left a little loose, it turns nonchalant.
Double straps on the spring/summer 2027 Hermès runway, seen on necklaces…
… and belts.
Nobody does leather quite like Hermès: elegant, but with a toughness that’s still a little masc. Think of Annie Leibovitz’s 1985 portrait of Anjelica Huston for : hair slicked back, sitting knees apart on a wooden chair in a ribbed white vest, jodhpurs and black riding boots, cigarette in hand. The house revisited the Cape Cod earlier this year, introducing a Mini version with a daintier 27mm case and the option of its signature double-tour strap, and it remains the double tour to beat. Blancpain’s Lady B is the most interesting newcomer, a tiny mechanical watch in a 19mm bubble of a case, though its wispier strap makes it a more delicate, less substantial proposition. Omega’s Mini Trésor sets a diamond-studded case on a slim double-wrap strap, while Chanel’s Première borrows from the house’s signature handbag chains, its leather-interwoven bracelet lending it a distinctly jewellery-like quality. Cartier’s Panthère Double Loop, meanwhile, dispenses with leather altogether, its supple gold bracelet winding twice around the wrist like two stacked bangles.
Panthère de Cartier watch, small model
Première Iconic Chain Double Row Watch
Singer, who she is “absolutely not a watch aficionado”, bought her own on Tennant’s recommendation. “I bought my Hermès Cape Cod with Martin Margiela’s double tour strap with my first tax refund; it felt like the most grown up purchase I ever made,” she recalls. She has since interviewed d’Origny, an encounter that only deepened her affection for the watch. “I wear it every day,” she says. “I actually need to get the battery replaced, but I’ve never used it to tell the time anyway – I just like that it always reminds me of people who I respect and admire.”
Cape Cod watch, Small model, 31 mm
