Rolex is a house built on design; we know watches like the Daytona, Submariner, GMT Master, and Datejust on sight; why don't we know who designed them? While Rolex subsumes the watch’s designer to the sanctity of the Rolex brand, most modern luxury watch brands are eager to promote the image and prestige of their in-house and partnering watch design stars. It wasn’t always this way. During the early 20th century, brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin (then Vacheron & Constantin) generally outsourced case-making, dial making, and the styling of both to independent watch designers.

As with the early auto industry, watchmaking was the domain of engineers and micro-mechanical technicians who designed and assembled movements or individual watch movement components. Watches from Omega and Rolex were “styled” by the engineers who conceived their calibers; freelance watch designers grew in parallel with automotive coachbuilders who built custom bodies atop rolling chassis from manufacturers. But while the auto industry quickly internalized the task of industrial design – General Motors led the way with Harley Earl – the watch industry continued to rely on outsourced design until the 1990s.

Historic 20th century watch designers only came to prominence due to later scholarship by watch collectors. Consider the body of work that rarely was acknowledged until the 1999s: Gerald Genta (Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Omega Constellation) Rene Bannwart (Corum Chinese Hat, Corum Coin Watch, Omega Centennial Watch), Jorg Hysek (Vacheron Constantin 222), and Claude Bailloud (1957 Omega Speedmaster); Raymond Thevanaz (Omega Dynamic); Rene Bittel (Patek Philippe Calatrava 3919, 1989 Patek Philippe 150th anniversary collection); Kikuo Ibe (1983 Casio G-shock).

Today, luxury watch designers represent integrated parts of the design team for every new model and every new brand. In an era when almost any luxury watch vendor or branding exercise can call a white label movement mill and order an “in-house caliber” to be branded their own, design has become the top differentiator and selling point for luxury watch brands and the watch buyers who support them. FP Journe, for example, declares that he designs a watch’s appearance before the movement due to the paramount importance of a striking appearance for sales purposes. MB&F has turned design collaboration into the brand’s reason for being and a key selling point.

Almost every brand from Audemars Piguet to Zenith has an in-house design team, and most large watch brands employ a celebrity designer or partner with celebrity industrial designers on a regular basis. Brands as disparate as the Swatch Group’s Rado brand and Germany’s independent horology star NOMOS Glashutte both retain a combination of designers on staff and partnering consumer design specialists. Patek Philippe has learned to publicize the role of the controlling Stern family in steering – and safeguarding – the design character that defines the brand. Rolex stands alone as a brand at which the only stars are the designs themselves. We may never know who designed the Rolex GMT-Master “Batman,” but that only enhances primacy of design. Even at Rolex, where products have faces and people have none, a watch needs to look the part for its starring role.