She says the first ever wristwatch was created for a woman by Patek Philippe in the 1800s. The brand’s website states that this was for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary.

But when Wallner went on a Google deep dive for stories about women wearing watches, her results disappointed. She said she quickly began to realise that women weren’t equally included in the conversation about watches.

After being laid off the day NYC went into lockdown in March 2020, she began thinking about how she could incorporate this into her next move.

“I was like, women and watches – there’s something there,” she said. So she started the Dimepiece Instagram account to “chronicle how women are wearing watches today”.

Wallner brought her flair for making luxury assets at Sotheby’s fun and approachable to her page, which now has some 50,000 followers.

“I’m gonna be funny, I’m gonna be irreverent, I’m gonna be cute,” she said of her approach.

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Brynn Wallner’s Dimepiece success

Wallner said that she started the Dimepiece Instagram account around the same time the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction in the summer of 2020.

“You have to consider the social climate. This was not the time to tear down new voices,” she said.

The male-dominant landscape of the watch industry meant women historically had to “assimilate to the existing watch culture”, she added.

When she started Dimepiece, she would talk about quartz movement watches with the same esteem as a coveted Patek Philippe, which could be seen as a controversial opinion in the world of watches. “But this is what people are wearing,” she said.

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Wallner revealed that, before starting Dimepiece, she didn’t actually own a luxury watch of her own – and the same can be said for some of her audience.

With her experience seeing premium watches as being on a similar playing field as viewing Hockneys and Picassos at Sotheby’s, she didn’t feel she needed to own luxury watches to appreciate them.

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It was when Wallner began browsing for a watch for her 30th birthday in 2021 that she realised advertising for watches fell short against other areas of fashion. “They’re sandwiched in between these gorgeous Gucci campaigns. It’s like a bad Photoshop job,” she said.

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“Even if a 16-year-old can’t afford a Rolex, nowadays they’re gonna start dreaming about it and then eventually buy it when they can afford it,” Wallner says.

The Dimepiece effect

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When Wallner met Alan Bedwell, the antiques dealer and founder of Foundwell, around late 2020 or early 2021, she recalls that she brought along a pouch of several watches including the bathtub-inspired Cartier Baignoire, which the brand would later relaunch.

She was shocked that no one online was talking about this model at the time and thought it was one of the coolest she’d seen. “I started selling vintage ones – people kept asking me for it,” she added.

The future of watches

Wallner says aesthetics are changing and the watch industry is taking notice. The industry has traditionally moved slowly, but now, with the rise of social media accounts talking watches, there’s constant feedback.

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She adds that it’s promising that brands are releasing watches for the ladies’ collection, as labelling watches as unisex could take the onus off brands focusing on their female clientele.

“It indicates that there was an intention to design for a woman,” Wallner explains, though she adds brands aren’t always hitting the mark as they try to strike a balance between maintaining their heritage and designing for the people of today.

The tide is turning, even if painfully slowly. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” she concludes.