Watches Spotted at the 2026 Met Gala

The Billionaire III is the third generation of Jacob Arabo's signature high-jewelry skeleton tourbillon, limited to just 18 pieces. The 54mm rectangular case is fully paved in 714 baguette-cut white diamonds totaling 129.61 carats, with 504 stones on the bracelet alone, 77 in the case, 76 in the inner ring, and 57 set across the movement bridges. The Rock made his Met Gala debut in a Thom Browne tuxedo with a pleated skirt, and his stylist Ilaria Urbinati went on record saying he is "the only person who could pull off that size." It is widely reported as the most expensive watch ever worn on the Met Gala steps.

The Astronomia is one of modern watchmaking's most theatrical pieces, a four-arm rotating mechanism that brings a triple-axis tourbillon, a magnesium globe, a Jacob-cut diamond, and an hour-minute dial through a full revolution every ten minutes. Wilson's example is the Meteorite variant, with a slice of meteorite serving as the central element, and was reported as a piece unique. He paired it with a Brandon Blackwood Egyptian-themed ivory three-piece, layered Jacob & Co. and Vobara necklaces, and a $2.4 million Ashoka tennis necklace, making the wrist game part of a much larger jewelry stack.

The 39mm Jumbo Extra-Thin is the closest modern reference to Gerald Genta's original 1972 Royal Oak design, and Skepta's example is one of the most spectacular gem-set variants AP has produced. The 18k yellow gold case, bracelet, and dial are paved with 1,528 brilliant-cut yellow sapphires totaling over 10 carats, a fully matched monochrome set that hides nothing about its intent. Skepta wore it with a custom Thom Browne suit referencing his Fred again.. collaboration "Back 2 Back," fully committing to the night's "Fashion is Art" theme by treating his own image as the artwork.

The Jumbo Openworked is what happens when AP strips its most iconic case down to the movement and lets the calibre 7124 do the talking. Reference 16204BC is the white gold version, with a fully skeletonized grey dial and a 39mm tonneau case that wears as flat as the original 1972 reference. Paak paired it with a custom Amiri ensemble and his usual high-energy red carpet posture, treating the watch like jewelry rather than a flex, which is exactly how the Royal Oak was originally designed to be worn.

As a long-time AP ambassador, Serena does not miss when it comes to Royal Oak choices, and her 41mm Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Openworked in titanium is one of the harder pieces to source in 2026. The dial is a full skeleton, exposing the day, date, month, leap year, and astronomical moon phase, and the case and bracelet are brushed and polished titanium for a noticeably lighter wear than steel. She wore it against a Grecian-inspired metallic Marc Jacobs gown, giving the watch room to function as the centerpiece of the look rather than just an accessory.

George Daniels is the British watchmaker who invented the co-axial escapement and built only around three dozen watches by hand in his lifetime. The Anniversary series, finished after his death by his protégé Roger W. Smith, applies that same hand-built standard to a 35-piece edition: yellow gold case, engine-turned silver dial, sub-seconds, age and phase of the moon, and a co-axial escapement. Each example takes around 2,500 hours to produce. Zuckerberg wearing one to a museum gala, with no logo flex and no influencer bait, is exactly the kind of move that lands with watch collectors and almost nobody else.

The Rainbow Daytona is one of the most coveted modern Rolex references, with a bezel set entirely in baguette-cut sapphires graduating through the full color spectrum. Reference 126598RBOW is the 18k yellow gold version with a black dial and gem-set hour markers, replacing the earlier 116598RBOW with the calibre 4131 movement. These trade well above retail and are essentially impossible to source new from authorized dealers. Westbrook paired it with a royal blue custom GapStudio suit by Zac Posen, going shirtless under the jacket, the kind of confident styling that has made him a top-ten best-dressed athlete two years running.

The Cartier Crash was first introduced by Cartier London in 1967, with origin stories ranging from a Salvador Dalí homage to a damaged JLC dial that an English collector asked Cartier to replicate. The platinum London-made examples from the early 1990s are some of the most coveted vintage Cartiers in existence, with secondary market prices climbing into the high six figures over the last five years. Malek's version is a 1992 platinum reference with the iconic warped Roman numeral dial and blued steel hands, paired with a black YSL coat trimmed in fur, the dressed-up dandy approach that has become his red carpet signature.

The Spirit of Big Bang is Hublot's tonneau-shaped chronograph, and the High Jewelry King Gold version is the dressed-up extreme of the line. The case, bezel, and crown are paved with diamonds against Hublot's proprietary 18k King Gold (a copper-rich rose gold alloy), and the openworked dial shows off the in-house chronograph movement underneath. Jefferson, the Vikings receiver and a relatively new face on the watch press circuit, wore it on his Met Gala debut, signaling a clear shift toward the "high jewelry watch as red carpet centerpiece" trend that is dominating 2026.

The Big Bang Unico High Jewelry is Hublot's flagship gem-set chronograph, with a 42mm white gold case set with 334 baguette-cut diamonds totaling 12.5 carats across the bezel, case, lugs, and bracelet. Beneath the diamond paving sits the in-house HUB1280 Unico calibre, with a flyback chronograph and 72 hours of power reserve. Evans wore it as the finishing touch on a Palomo Wool all-leather, all-brown look paying homage to artist Tom of Finland, the kind of fully committed character build that the "Fashion is Art" brief was made for.

The Overseas is Vacheron's integrated bracelet sport watch and one of the most underrated pieces in the steel sport category, sitting somewhere between the Royal Oak and the Nautilus on price and presence. The Tourbillon variant in 42.5mm titanium is one of the lighter tourbillon sports watches on the market, with a deep merlot lacquered dial and the open-tipped tourbillon cage at six o'clock. Kelly paired it with a matching burgundy velvet tuxedo, the kind of subtle color-on-color move that separates a styled wrist from a flexed one.

The Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar is JLC at its most restrained: a 39mm three-hand-and-perpetual case at just 9.2mm thick, with a silvered dial, applied indices, and the calibre 868AA running a full perpetual calendar plus moon phase. Hoult, a longtime JLC ambassador, paired it with a Prada all-leather suit and a freshly shaved head, a striking minimalist look that gave the watch the visual breathing room a dress complication this clean actually deserves. Some watch press has flagged that the hand color appears slightly off-catalogue, hinting it may be a teaser of a 2026 release.

The Reverso has been in the JLC catalogue since 1931, originally designed for polo players who needed to flip the case during a match. Withers and fellow attendee Finn Wolfhard both debuted what looks like a previously unannounced "Or Deco Cocktail" variation in white gold, with Withers's version set with two rows of green baguette-cut emeralds where the gadroons would normally sit and a fine mesh bracelet. The piece nods to the Art Deco origins of the case shape, exactly the kind of horological quotation a "Fashion is Art" theme was tailored for.

The Spiga, named after the Italian word for "wheat stalk," uses interlocking gold links shaped to wrap around the wrist like the Serpenti's namesake snake. Lisa's example is a full white gold High Jewelry edition, paved entirely in diamonds along the body and head, with sapphire indices and blued hands on the dial. She wore it on a sculptural arm extension as part of her Robert Wun "tent" gown, making the watch one of the few pieces of the entire outfit that was not 3D-printed, an unintentionally perfect punchline to a "Fashion is Art" night.

The Constellation Observatory is one of Omega's newer dress releases, with a 39.4mm Moonshine 18k gold case (Omega's proprietary paler yellow gold alloy), a textured Moonshine bracelet, and a sunburst gold dial with applied baton indices. The Co-Axial Master Chronometer movement underneath gives it METAS-certified accuracy and 15,000-gauss antimagnetic resistance. Storrie, the breakout from the Canadian series Heated Rivalry, wore it with a Saint Laurent halterneck-and-trousers look on his first major red carpet, going for golden-on-golden warmth rather than the diamond pavé route most of the carpet chose.

The Manhattan, introduced in 1982, is the Constellation that introduced Omega's signature "griffes" or claws, the four small tabs that hold the sapphire crystal against the case and bracelet. Domingo's reference 198.0136 is a stainless steel quartz example from the 1980s with a grey dial, Roman numerals, and the integrated bracelet that defined the era's design vocabulary. He pulled it from Omega's museum archive and paired it with a multicolor Valentino look, the kind of move that signals serious watch knowledge: skip the new release, wear the historically meaningful piece, let everyone else figure it out.