Why University’s End Marks the Start of So Many Watch Collectors’ Journeys

August 19, 2026 / Sophie Clearwater /

From Nomos’s Club Campus to Breitling’s university editions, the strategy is the same: meet customer early. Courtesy Nomos, TAG Heuer and IWC

Most graduation gifts get used up, replaced or forgotten, but a watch is different. For generations, receiving a serious timepiece has marked the move out of school and into whatever follows, whether it’s a first job, a new city or simply adult life. Part of the appeal is straightforward: graduation is a natural occasion for a substantial gift and, for watchmakers at the accessible end of luxury, it’s a chance to become someone’s introduction to a “real,” mechanical watch.

Many watchmakers recognize that moment and treat graduation as a distinct buying occasion, with some building entire collections around it. Few have embraced the idea as deliberately as Nomos Glashütte. Founded in 1990 in the German watchmaking town of Glashütte, Nomos is known for its clean, Bauhaus-influenced design and in-house mechanical movements. Its youthful Club Campus collection is aimed squarely at graduates marking a new chapter in their lives, positioned as an accessible entry into the brand and mechanical watchmaking more broadly.

“Graduation marks an important step into adult life for many, which is one reason we chose it,” Ines Hatzmannsberger, head of sales and communications for North America at Nomos, told Observer. “At the same time, it stands for something broader: self-determination, setting your own course, and achieving what you set out to do.” That idea extends the watch’s significance—a milestone timepiece, after all, doesn’t always arrive with a diploma. Nomos points to a first career success or even a first apartment as other occasions worth marking; what ties them together is the transition.

Nomos introduced Club Campus in 2017 specifically around graduation and other early milestones. The collection pairs youthful colors and sporty cases with hand-wound movements, with current U.S. models generally running from about $1,830 to $2,070. “Club Campus is a smart entry point into the world of Nomos Glashütte,” Hatzmannsberger said. “The price is also attractive for those who are just starting their journey with mechanical wristwatches.”

Nomos may be unusually direct about the graduation connection, but it’s far from alone. Tag Heuer has long positioned the Formula 1 as a coming-of-age watch, and its current graduation gift guide includes multiple models from the collection. The Formula 1 collection spans solar-powered 38 mm pieces around $1,950 to $2,050, quartz chronographs from roughly $2,100 to $2,900, and automatic chronographs climbing past $4,500. Longines also markets directly to graduation shoppers, with a dedicated U.S. selection spanning the Conquest, Spirit, Master Collection and others. Current options range from around $1,000 into the mid-$3,000s, including a steel automatic Conquest at $2,400.

A lineup of three wristwatches shows a Longines Flagship with a brown leather strap, a rectangular two-tone Longines bracelet watch and a black IWC Pilot’s Watch with a fabric strap. — (l. to r.) Watches from Longines’s Flagship Heritage and DolceVita series with IWC’s Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII TOPGUN Edition SFTI Soldier. Courtesy Longines and IWC

Other brands make the education link literal. Breitling’s Endurance Pro University Editions carry the colors and insignia of Stanford, Princeton, Alabama, Michigan and the U.S. Naval Academy. The university models currently listed by Breitling are each priced at $3,900. Meanwhile, IWC takes the idea in a slightly different, more exclusive direction. In 2018, the manufacturer created special Pilot’s Watches available only to graduates of the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN, including versions carrying the school insignia and personalized details. Here, the achievement itself is what qualifies someone to own the watch.

A consistent commercial logic runs through each of these examples. The watches are expensive or recognizable enough to feel like a first serious timepiece, but they don’t reach the upper end of each brand’s catalog. For watchmakers, that means meeting customers early—ideally at the beginning of a relationship not only with mechanical watches, but with the brand.

That signaling is only part of the appeal. Unlike most things bought to mark the start of professional life, a watch can stay with its owner for decades, picking up meaning as the occasion itself grows more distant. That permanence also makes personalization especially fitting, and engraved watches account for a high share of Nomos’s online sales. (Club Campus notably leaves much of its caseback available for an inscription.) “Mechanical watches are often purchased in advance of a special occasion and are intended in part to commemorate the event—whether that is a graduation, a promotion or a wedding,” Hatzmannsberger said. “Watches are wonderful reminders of a certain moment in life, which is why having it engraved is often important for our customers.”

Most graduation watches probably aren’t engraved, but the sentiment helps explain why the tradition has held up so well. Years later, the watch isn’t really a graduation gift anymore; it’s simply the watch someone has owned since graduation, with the memory of that moment still attached to it. Somewhere between a symbol of affection, a trophy and a status object, it can also become more meaningful with time.

“Watches remain a form of connection between generations,” Hatzmannsberger said. “In our fast-paced modern world, many appreciate items that have been made to last a lifetime and can even be passed on to the next generation.”