I love pocket watches – they have a vintage air about them even if they're not actually antiques. (Plus my fiance wears one so I guess I'm a bit biased.) I was pretty happy to see Givenchy breaking the makeup-as-jewelry mold with this "watch" containing a highlighter for lips and cheeks. I'm not particuarly fond of these pieces as I find them to be relatively useless gimmicks (I have yet to see someone actually accessorizing with these) consisting of fancy silver and gold metal packaging with a lackluster product, but this stands out to me.
Other companies have released wearable makeup items (see pictures below) and they're always the usual jewelry items. Yves Saint Laurent released a heart-shaped pendant containing two lip glosses for last year's holiday season, while Dior came out with a pendant lip gloss this past summer as well a lip gloss gloss a few years back.
(photos from sephora, neiman marcus and nordstrom.com)
Givenchy's watch goes beyond the typical accessory, eschewing a charm bracelet or locket for an item usually worn by men, which I believe makes it a bit edgier. After seeing the product name is "Sweet Dandy" I dug around and discovered that the muse for Dior's fall 2008 collection, the dandy, was the same inspiration for Givenchy's watch. Creator Nicolas Degennes was taken with the "sophisticated ambiguity of the dandy style…with its mixture of masculine and feminine codes." I could launch into a very long discussion about traditional gender roles and how certain products signify gender, but suffice it to say I think Degennes definitely hit the nail on the head with the watch - it's a perfect blend of male and female accoutrements. The item does fall short of relating in any way to the fashion house's fall clothing lineup (the ready-to-wear line by Riccardo Tisci has a "Latino Gothic" feel, according to the press release), but it is a well-executed realization of Degennes's original concept.