Watch Spotting at New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2026

By Stephen Watson | 09.19.25

Fashion Week in New York isn't just about clothes — it's about prophecy. Editors, buyers, stylists, and street-style hangers-on act like fortune tellers, scanning the runways for the next shift in taste. What they wear is as telling as what they see, and this applies not only to the garments, but to the watches on their wrists.

What Analog:Shift loves about watches is that they represent both utility and identity: Supremely functional, but also expressive. A choice as revealing as a suit and tie or a t-shirt and jeans. During September's Fashion Week, which has just wrapped, the timepieces chosen by insiders provide a code, a subtle hint about where our collective taste might be heading.

Photographer Dan Bassini, photo cred - Mark Hunter/The Cobrasnake

Our own view of these signals is sharpened by the intrepid lens of photographer Dan Bassini, a New York City–based talent who works fluidly between digital and analog formats. His images, featured in solo and group shows across the city, remind us that the right moment—captured on film—can speak volumes about culture, style, and the spirit of New York itself. In his hands, he recognizes that each watch becomes a larger statement frozen in time.

Are we about to see a rise in unapologetically bold colors? Is there a renewed hunger for quiet, understated classics? Or a return to the louche confidence of the 1980s, with its angular cases and gem-set bravado. Appraising our small crowd of 20 attendees, patterns emerge that echo far beyond the tents and the after-parties. From these subtle signals seen in our images below, we can sketch the outlines of trends that will eventually ripple out into the broader culture onto our wrists.

Some highlights:

1. An example of style reflecting not what you wear, but how you wear it:

Steven Kolb - @StevenKolb - CEO & President of CFDA

Wearing a Rolex Air King & Apple Watch on ankle

2. Another revealing surprise, where the watch choice reflects smart personal style:

Mike Amoia - @aiomaekim - Entrepreneur/producer

Wearing the genius quartz F.P. Journe Élégante

3. The “WOW” factor, a rare sighting of the bold BVLGARI x MB&F Serpenti, one of only 33 examples in the world:

Wisdom Kaye - @wisdm - Influencer

Wearing a spectacular rose gold Bvlgari x MB&F Serpenti

Over the span of a few scattered days, New York Fashion Week’s "what's now" slowly turns into "what's next." You can literally see tomorrow's desires taking shape in real time, direct from the runways to the streets. In that sense, every watch spotted here — whether gem-set, retro-minimalist, or sculptural — becomes a data point in the grand forecast.

Fashion insiders aren't merely predicting what we'll wear in the seasons ahead. They are living that prediction, embodying it, testing it, and making it legible for the rest of us. They are — I hate to say it — influencing. The watch, small but potent, is an essential piece of that puzzle — a subtle oracle for the industry, ticking away the shape of things to come.