This story originally appeared in Esquire's 'About Time' newsletter, style director Johnny Davis’s straight-talking take on the wonderful world of watches. Sign up here.
We have Joan Rivers to thank for the phrase ‘Who are you wearing?’
Stalking the red carpet at the 1991 Golden Globes on the celebrity interview beat, it was Rivers who coined the grammatically curious question that has since been adopted by everyone who’s followed in her footsteps.
(FYI, the answer to ‘Who are you wearing?’ wasn’t always ‘Valentino couture’. The first-ever Best Actress, Janet Gaynor, in 1932, wore a dress she’d found in a children’s shop, plus brogues. Five years later the Austrian ingénue Luise Rainer collected the same award in her nightie. She lived to 104. Way to go, Luise.)
But this is not a story about awards’ dresses. It's about watches. The point is that ‘Who are you wearing’ has gone from women to men to men’s watches. It can scarcely have escaped your notice that wrist-checks have become a major talking point of awards season coverage, including our own.
With good reason: Cartier’s mind-blowing profits are in no small part down to the parade of that brand’s itsy-bitsy dress watches Timothée Chalamet has been wearing while posing outside various awards’ venues, starting with the discontinued dual-time white gold Privé Cartier Paris he wore to the Venice Film Festival in 2022.
“What’s happened is menswear in general has gotten more attention on the red carpet,” says Ilaria Urbinati, the Hollywood stylist who dressed stars including Barry Keoghan, Chris Evans and Donald Glover for the 2024 Academy Awards. “And while women have a lot more to play with – they have diamonds, and jewellery – for men it’s become their watches. It’s a really easy flex. For me, it’s the watch that really finishes off a red carpet look. Without a nice watch, it feels a little… naked.”
How much of a say do her clients have in what they wear on their wrists?
Urbinati says that depends.
“I have guys who just wear watches to match their outfit. And then I have guys who really do their research and know about special editions, special releases, vintage… there’s so much out there. With watches they can really go down that rabbit hole. Men love to nerd out on that stuff.”
Urbinati singles out Timothée Chalamet and Barry Keoghan for helping shine the spotlight on less mainstream models.
The former because “he likes a really bold watch [eg: a diamond and ruby-bedecked Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra; a white ceramic IWC Top Gun ‘Lake Tahoe’] so people pay a lot of attention to whatever he’s wearing”.
And the latter for kicking off the trend for smaller jewellery pieces that used to primarily be the preserve of women. “I get a lot of guys asking for Cartier Tanks now,” she says. “And that really tiny Tag Heuer watch on a bracelet that looks like a women’s watch [likely the 27mm gold and diamond Aquaracer Date].”
The stylist sees part of her remit is to encourage her clients to experiment.
“My job is to try and go a little bit outside their comfort zone – not so much that they don’t feel like themselves, or they’ve trying to be something that they’re not, because that never works out well. But so that they’re surprised by the different kinds of things they can wear, and which things will look good on them.
“I always joke in fittings, it’s like when you go shopping for a wedding dress. You think you’re going to be the girl who’s going to wear the Easter Princess Gown. And then you try on something minimal and you’re, like, ‘Oh, wait! This looks good!’ It’s kind of the same with watches. ‘I actually feel confident. This is actually really fun’. And then I push that further.”
All this is money-can’t-buy publicity for the watch brands, of course.
Except, that is, in the cases where money has bought it.
Plenty of leading actors already have lucrative deals with top-tier watchmakers and are contractually obliged to appear wearing not just a particular brand, but a particular watch.
For Urbinati that can be a mixed blessing.
“Yeah,” she says. “The ones who don’t have skin in the game just get to wear what they like. Guys with contracts have to show the watch. Which, as a stylist, can sometimes be challenging because they’re wearing a suit a lot of the time. And I can’t control whether the watch gets seen or not.”
"Look at my watch!"
This is where seasoned pros adopt one of a small repertoire of classic wrist poses – hands held together at the waist, revealing two-inches of cuff; or the watch arm awkwardly positioned across the chest, as if expecting a bird of prey. Will Ferrell recently sent up the whole I-am-wearing-an-important-watch thing up for the silliness it can be.
“That was hilarious,” Urbinati says
Still, not everyone is convinced all watch publicity is good watch publicity.
“The Weeknd wearing a Piaget diamond watch at Cannes last year was a big moment, it was cool and it made a statement that translated,” says one industry veteran. “Same with Rihanna in the Jacob & Co choker [worn at Pharrell’s Williams’ first Louis Vuitton menswear show, last year] – that was a major moment for brand visibility as well as for business enquiries. Big moments really count big. But [BRAND NAME REDACTED] spend an awful lot of money chucking random off-the-shelf watches on anyone that will take the cheque, regardless of brand fit. That carpet-bombing has become the laughing stock of the celebrity-dressing community. Some guy wearing a [WATCH NAME REDACTED] with a suit and looking like a businessman at the Retail Grocer Awards at the Grosvenor House hotel is not great."
![cannes, france may 22 abel “the weeknd” tesfaye attends the the idol red carpet during the 76th annual cannes film festival at palais des festivals on may 22, 2023 in cannes, france photo by stephane cardinale corbiscorbis via getty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-1492435227-6601484e4a186.jpg?resize=980:* ""The Idol" Red Carpet - The 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival")
Before the Academy Awards, Urbinati told us we should keep an eye on another of her clients, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – someone not under contract with a brand.
“His watches really stand out [he likes them big, natch: Panerai Submersibles, IWC Big Pilots and Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks]. There’s been a lot of attention around the watches he chooses to wear. And he’s gotten more and more into them – he owns a lot of great watches himself now. It’s not just what I get him.
“I mean, he’s a big guy with good arms, and he likes to show them off. So, he tends to wear short sleeves,” she notes.
“So that helps.”
On the night, her other clients included Tyler Williams, Garrett Hedlund, James Morrison and Ramy Youssef.
And she put watches on all of them?
“Always. I don’t like to let my guys go out without a watch on.”
This story originally appeared in Esquire's 'About Time' newsletter, style director Johnny Davis’s straight-talking take on the wonderful world of watches. Sign up here.
