Ice, Ice Baby: Ice Jewelry Meets Watches to Create Bling Watches

Urban gear seems to float under the radar of high fashion. Even though urban gear has its high-end brands like Baby Phat and Roca Wear, the street aspect of the clothing – no one will probably be caught at the Emmys in Enyce for fear of negative criticism in the tabloids – seems to put it into a category all of itself. Although standard casual clothing has picked up urban gear aspects here or there (think of Tommy Hilfiger and Polo clothing in the late ‘90s), urban wear has gone off in its own direction with separate standards and high-end urban gear retailers, such as City Blue clothing stores in Philadelphia where Allen Iverson purportedly shopped for his look. But is this such a bad thing? Alternative fashion, at the height of flannel and Doc Martens in the early and mid-‘90s, has its own niche clothing stores, as well.

As this blog has mentioned, watches, to compete with cell phones, have begun to look like jewelry. In terms of urban fashion, this often means being covered in bling to the max. In fact, watch wholesale retailers like Time World USA even sell matching watch and pendant sets to get the bling theme across. Whether the gift recipient chooses to wear a matching watch and pendant is moot but, rather, that even men’s watches have taken on the jewelry appearance of platinum covered in “ice,” or diamond studs, often associated with urban gear.

These ice watches are essentially designed like typical urban jewelry. Whether you’re looking for a higher-end Roca Wear watch or something more affordable, this means a silver, platinum, or gold colored watch covered in rhinestones, or, for high-end watches, diamonds. The clear colored rhinestones cover all aspects of the watch, from the rim of the watch face to the dial to the band. Although diamond studs still appear to be popular, often smaller diamonds or rhinestones are used on the watches instead of a larger rock.