New Delhi, Nov. 8 -- Wristwatch enthusiasts often obsess over things that seem totally arcane, things that have nothing to do with what the rest of the world is going through. What's ironic, though, is that often these same niche obsessions translate into mainstream tastes and ultimately affect the trajectory of the watch industry. It's just that this entire process takes a few years, by when the enthusiasts are nitpicking something else altogether.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the debate over watch sizes. I've written about this at length before, so I'll give the highlights here. Since the 1940s or so-basically the time when wearing wristwatches really caught on-till the 1990s, the size of watch cases had largely been demure. Me...