Acqua di Parma Luce di Rosa

De-genderisation (but not in the sense meant in the febrile online nuclei of our unseemly culture wars) has become quite the thing in luxury. Reportedly, top-end car marques are increasingly — despite how the sound of a Ferrari 812 GTS’s V12 mill apparently turbo-charges male endocrines — aiming their marketing at female buyers.

The same trend can be found in horology. “Historically, watches were created for professions that were dominated by men,” Brian Duffy, the Chief Executive of the Watches of Switzerland Group of retailers, has said. “But life has changed. Now we have women pilots, racing drivers, submariners, and so on. The gender relevance has diluted.”

The phrase ‘his and hers’, in short, has more than a whiff of antiquity about it. And a pioneer, when it comes to desirable genderless products, is a brand founded in 1916 by an Italian baron, Carlo Magnani, in the northern Italian city that makes up the second part of its name. The latest