Crazy Hours

There is a broad range of crazy hours for sale on 1stDibs. All of the items for sale were constructed with extraordinary care, often using Gold, 18k Gold and Enamel. Find a collection of 1 vintage versions or 10 modern creations for a more contemporary example of these cherished accessories. Our collection is diverse and broad-ranging, and pieces in stock date back to the 20th Century while others were produced as recently as the 21st Century. The designs in our inventory of crazy hours bearing Contemporary hallmarks are very popular. Many pieces in our collection are stylish for most occasions, but Diamond versions, from our inventory of 5, can add a particularly distinctive touch to your look, day or night. There are many brilliant cut and round cut crazy hours for sale. There aren’t many items for men in our collection of crazy hours, as most of the options available are for women.

Prices for crazy hours can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — at 1stDibs, these accessories begin at $4,606 and can go as high as $21,000, while crazy hours, on average, fetch $11,800.

Hailed as the “Master of Complications,” watchmaking brand Franck Muller is celebrated for its exquisitely technical contemporary timepieces. Its cofounder — the man for whom the company is named — is known for his groundbreaking use of the tourbillon and for championing intricate mechanical watches in an era that nearly saw them disappear entirely.

Muller crafted his own tourbillon wristwatch in the early 1980s. It was a time when the watch industry was still weathering the so-called “quartz crisis,” when Japanese battery-powered quartz timepieces, which were easy and inexpensive to produce, swept through the marketplace and challenged the traditional mechanical models. While Japanese brands such as Seiko thrived, this meant economic disaster in Switzerland. Now-legendary designers such as Gérald Genta created iconic timepieces during the crisis, but it was unlikely to see such a complicated timepiece from what was even an established luxury watchmaker when Muller’s first handcrafted watches emerged.

The tourbillon was invented in the 18th century, an era of clocks and pocket watches, to battle the negative effects that gravity was having on accuracy of these devices. As a young artisan restoring vintage Patek Philippe watches, Breguet watches and other timepieces that came his way from collectors, the Swiss-born Muller, who dropped out of high school but studied for four years at the Geneva School of Watchmaking, came to admire the sophistication of the tourbillon.

"The tourbillon is very difficult to make and very difficult to associate with other complications, yet it results in a watch with better timing," Muller told Cigar Aficionado.

He decided that he would make his own watches and that a tourbillon should be visible from the front versus the back. No one had ever done that before.

The Franck Muller brand was officially established by Muller and Vartan Sirmakes in 1991 and the tourbillon — even as it requires hand-assembly by seasoned experts — would later be integrated into the faces of many of the watchmaker’s most popular watch designs, including the Franck Muller Yachting series.

Today’s discerning collectors are enthusiastic about these prestigious tourbillon timepieces, the brand’s wildly inventive shaped watches and the World Premieres, in which a new line of timepieces is produced annually and boasts a feature or attribute that is brand-new to the watchmaking industry.

Find Franck Muller watches on 1stDibs.

Gold is the feel-good metal, the serotonin of jewelry. Wear vintage and antique gold necklaces, watches, gold bracelets or gold rings and you feel happy, you feel dressed, you feel, well, yourself. 

Gold, especially yellow gold, with its rich patina and ancient pedigree going back thousands of years, is the steady standby, the well-mannered metal of choice. Any discussion of this lustrous metal comes down to a basic truth: Gold is elementary, my dear. Gold jewelry that couples the mystique of the metal with superb design and craftsmanship achieves the status of an enduring classic. Many luxury houses have given us some of our most treasured and lasting examples of gold jewelry over the years.

Since its founding, in 1837, Tiffany & Co. has built its reputation on its company jewelry as well as its coterie of boutique designers, which has included Jean Schlumberger, Donald Claflin, Angela Cummings and Elsa Peretti. There are numerous gold Tiffany classics worth citing. Some are accented with gemstones, but all stand out for their design and the workmanship displayed.

For the woman who prefers a minimalist look, the Tiffany & Co. twist bangle (thin, slightly ovoid) is stylishly simple. For Cummings devotees, signature pieces feature hard stone inlay, such as her pairs of gold ear clips inlaid with black jade (a play on the classic Chanel black and tan), or bangles whose design recalls ocean waves, with undulating lines of lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl. And just about any design by the great Jean Schlumberger is by definition a classic.

Even had he eschewed stones and diamonds, Southern-born David Webb would be hailed for the vast arsenal of heavy gold jewelry he designed. Gold, usually hammered or textured in some manner, defines great David Webb jewelry. The self-taught jeweler made very au courant pieces while drawing inspiration from ancient and out-of-the-way sources — East meets West in the commanding gold necklaces made by Webb in the early 1970s. The same could be said for his endlessly varied gold cuffs.

In Europe, many houses have given us gold jewelry that sets the highest standard for excellence, pieces that were highly sought after when they were made and continue to be so. 

Numerous designs from Cartier are homages to gold. There are the classic Trinity rings, necklaces and bracelets — trifectas of yellow, white and rose gold. As a testament to the power of love, consider the endurance of the Cartier Love bracelet.

Aldo Cipullo, Cartier’s top in-house designer from the late 1960s into the early ’70s, made history in 1969 with the Love bracelet. Cipullo frequently said that the Love bracelet was born of a sleepless night contemplating a love affair gone wrong and his realization that “the only remnants he possessed of the romance were memories.” He distilled the urge to keep a loved one close into a slim 18-karat gold bangle. 

BVLGARI and its coin jewelry, gemme nummarie, hit the jackpot when the line launched in the 1960s. The line has been perennially popular. BVLGARI coin jewelry features ancient Greek and Roman coins embedded in striking gold mounts, usually hung on thick link necklaces of varying lengths. In the 1970s, BVLGARI introduced the Tubogas line, most often made in yellow gold. The Tubogas watches are classics, and then there is the Serpenti, the house's outstanding snake-themed watches and bracelets.

A collection called Monete that incorporated the gold coins is one of several iconic BVLGARI lines that debuted in the 1970s and ’80s, catering to a new generation of empowered women. Just as designers like Halston and Yves Saint Laurent were popularizing fuss-free ready-to-wear fashion for women on the go, BVLGARI offered jewels to be lived in. 

Since Van Cleef & Arpels opened its Place Vendôme doors in 1906, collection after collection of jewelry classics have enchanted the public. As predominantly expressed in a honeycomb of gold, there is the Ludo watch and accessories, circa the 1920s, and the golden Zip necklace, 1951, whose ingenious transformation of the traditional zipper was originally proposed by the Duchess of Windsor. Van Cleef's Alhambra, with its Moroccan motif, was introduced in 1968 and from the start its popularity pivoted on royalty and celebrity status. It remains one of VCA’s most popular and collected styles.

Mention must be made of Buccellati, whose name is synonymous with gold so finely spun that it suggests tapestry. The house’s many gold bracelets, typically embellished with a few or many diamonds, signified taste and distinction and are always in favor on the secondary market. Other important mid-20th-century houses known for their gold-themed jewelry include Hermès and Ilias Lalaounis.

Find a stunning collection of vintage and antique gold jewelry on 1stDibs.