Just Don't Call Them Bling

Retailers are noticing a healthy business in gold timepieces, too.

“A couple years ago, there was some resistance to wearing something like that on your wrist,” said Michael Gordon, the director of the Tourneau TimeMachine store on East 57th Street in Manhattan. “You didn’t want to see ostentatious at work.”

But nowadays, he said, young Wall Street types are increasingly drawn to subtly elegant pieces by, say, Vacheron Constantin or Breguet, many of which are available only in gold or platinum, as a means of adding panache to a standard business suit.