Developed as a means of protecting watches after purchase, the watch box provides an air of luxury while also ensuring your watch’s longevity. Since the early days of the designer watch, elegant timepieces came housed in equally refined boxes typically lined with velvet or another soft, silky material. The notion behind the box was that it protected your timepiece while not on your person, but over time the box itself became a symbol of a watch brand’s status.

The lid of the box became a location to emblazon ones logo, and the presentation value of the watch on the interior, similar to the display of a ring in a ring box, had the potential to awe. Resulting were boxes that were beautiful themselves and served as a perfect compliment to the sophisticated watches they secluded.

Quick Facts

• Though the first widespread mechanical clocks appeared during the 1300s, telling time dates much farther back into history. The sundial of ancient cultures, for example, was a rudimentary time-telling device
• Watch boxes particularly come in handy for protecting and storing high-end luxury watches like the Patek Caliber 89, retailing just over $5 million
• The word watch is originally derived from the Old English word “wæcce,” or “watchfulness.” The term for its study, or horology, is derived from the Greek word “horo,” which refers to “time”