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Angela Cummings Dress Form Watch – Sterling Silver Silver Dial

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A Piece Of Wearable Sculpture

Angela Cummings is a name that carries serious weight for those who follow 20th-century jewelry design. After honing her craft at Tiffany & Co., where she became one of the few designers to have a named collection, she established her own brand and a boutique at Bergdorf Goodman. Her work is known for its organic, sculptural quality, often inspired by nature. This watch is not just a timepiece; it's a piece of jewelry from a designer with an unimpeachable pedigree, offered in her signature sterling silver.

The Designer's Alternative

This watch, shaped like a miniature dress form, is a perfect example of Cummings' playful and artistic approach. It moves beyond the conventions of a round or square watch case, offering something with personality and intention. While she was famous for her work in 18k gold at Tiffany, Cummings embraced sterling silver for her own collections, allowing her to explore form without compromising on material quality. This piece is for someone who appreciates design history and wants an object that tells a more interesting story than the usual suspects.

An Honest And Artistic Object

The watch is in overall good vintage condition. The sterling silver case is presented in fair unpolished condition, showing signs of a life lived. Its unique form is preserved, and the silver dial has developed a warm, cream-colored patina that adds to its vintage character. It's fitted with an aftermarket cream-colored alligator skin strap. As with every watch we offer, this piece has been verified as mechanically sound and is ready to wear.

For The Confident Collector

This watch is for an individual with a developed sense of style who appreciates the work of a master artisan. Wearing an Angela Cummings piece signals a deeper knowledge of design and a confidence to choose an object based on its artistic merit. It’s a conversation starter and a subtle nod to one of American jewelry's most important figures.

Key Specs

Model: Dress Form Watch

Era: 1990s

Movement: Quartz

Case Size: 22x25mm

Bezel: Sterling Silver

Strap: Aftermarket Cream Alligator Leather

Dial: Silver with Cream Patina

Metal: Sterling Silver

Bracelet Length: Up to 6in

SKU: 696

History

Angela Cummings established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in American jewelry design during her tenure at Tiffany & Co., which she joined in 1967 after studying at the Hanau School of Design in Germany. Her work at Tiffany over nearly two decades set her apart from her contemporaries through her insistence on using unconventional materials — ebony, coral, black jade, boulder opal, and sterling silver — in combinations that challenged the convention that fine jewelry required diamonds and gold. Her pieces were sculptural and wearable simultaneously, objects that functioned as jewelry but carried the weight and ambition of studio art.

In 1984, Cummings left Tiffany to launch her own label, giving her the creative independence to develop the ideas she had been building throughout her career. The work produced under her own name maintained the rigorous material standards of her Tiffany years while pushing further into abstraction and form. The sterling silver pieces from this period are particularly significant: they represent a deliberate choice to work in a material that most luxury designers treated as beneath them, elevating it through design and craft to an object of genuine collector interest. The dress watches she produced during this era applied the same philosophy — the case shape, the dial surface, and the bracelet were conceived as a single sculptural form rather than as separate components assembled around a movement.

Among collectors of American design, Angela Cummings occupies a position comparable to Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso within the broader context of Tiffany-era designers who went on to define their own aesthetic territory. Her pieces are increasingly sought after as the market for twentieth-century American jewelry design has matured, and examples that demonstrate the clarity and conviction of her personal vision — particularly in silver and non-precious materials — are recognized as important works in their own right.