A light sprinkle of diamonds on the bezel of a daily watch, a kaleidoscopic display of precious gems in high jewellery designs or a dial camouflaged as a pendant – almost all iterations of ladies’ timepieces are the harmonious result of the combined efforts of a watchmaker and a jewellery artisan.

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These examples go to show how jewellery timepieces can be as versatile as their owners allow them to be. But the diverse aesthetics of the jewellery watch beg the question: how should the category be defined?

Cartier’s long history in jewellery naturally lends itself to an archive full of such iconic designs. The house’s first watch – the aviation-inspired Santos – and the Salvador Dalí-esque Crash de Cartier are just two of its most recognisable timepieces. Beyond adorning existing designs with gems, the house is known for integrating its gem-setting know-how into new watches.

The Ballon Bleu Vibrating Diamond is a stunning example of creative watchmaking from the brand. Across the dial are diamonds set on moving prongs that vibrate ever so slightly with the wrist’s movement, providing a shimmer across the entire dial.

Aside from being Napoleon Bonaparte’s most trusted jeweller and renowned artisan of tiaras, Chalet also brings a jeweller’s touch to timepieces. The French house is known for masking their watches’ true identities with copious arrangements of diamonds and other precious gems.

Jewellers have long gravitated to such so-called secret watches because of the versatility and creativity they require. Beyond being a clever way to conceal a timepiece, designers freed from conventional spatial constraints can think outside the dial, as it were.

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Inspired by the snowy winter night sky, this watch has a shimmery aventurine dial that hides behind pear-shaped and brilliant-cut diamonds. The geometric arrangement of stones, which nods to vintage French lacework often found in couture, doubles as an elaborate cover for the dial.

In a similar execution, the Maharani watch features pear-shaped diamonds set alongside brilliant-cut stones that form a ribbonlike motif. Of course, each of these designs sparkle further with yet more diamonds set around their bezels, lugs and crowns.

Van Cleef & Arpels is also known for its playful take on bejewelled secret watches, sometimes masking dials as pendants, or even hiding them in plain sight in the case of the Cadenas.

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To an unsuspecting onlooker, the piece is a beautiful chunky bracelet, its true identity unknown. Instead of on the top of the wrist, the tiny dial rests at a 90-degree angle inside the “padlock”, visible only to its owner.

The secret watch has experienced a revival of sorts in recent years with various bracelet and gem-set iterations. One of the most sparkling renditions features a double chain bracelet, and a case covered entirely in diamonds with the snow setting technique, while other editions in precious metals accentuate the bold curves of the timepiece without the distraction of diamonds.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Graff, a jeweller known for its bold take on using large gemstones of different colours and cuts to create statement pieces. The house is continuing to create watches as part of its high jewellery collection in this way, showing time and again that it isn’t afraid to bring maximum sparkle.

One of its most stunning timepieces to date is the Diamond Hallucination watch, set entirely with fancy coloured diamonds in various cuts, totalling 110 carats – it’s definitely not for the understated.

Only slightly less flamboyant, the disarmingly named Yellow and White Diamond watch deploys 54.36 carats of them in another shimmering tour-de-force. The challenge of gathering this many yellow diamonds of a similar hue, size and quality is a rare feat in itself.