Any guestlist that boasts Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z is bound to be an absolute watch fest. There are few things rappers, singers and musicians love more than obsessing over timepieces – shoutouts to Cartier, Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek occur in songs more regularly than any other material objects. Hell, last year Kendrick Lamar mentioned AP’s head of complications (legit job title) in one of his new songs. So we knew we had a job on our hands to carefully document what wrist candy was on show at this year’s Grammy Awards.
While Messieurs Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, and Dave weren’t there to fly the flag for UK artists – save them for the Brits this weekend – there was plenty of notable action, crazy grails and ridiculously complicated pieces we’re sure got lots of airtime between awards.
The GOAT
It’s not often that you get two grandmasters in the vicinity of one another but on Sunday playing the role of Beyoncé’s No.1 fan, Jay-Z was spotted hanging out with Grandmaster Flash – while wearing his Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300G. While one of the founding fathers of Hip Hop needs no introduction, it’s worth noting that this particularly rare double-faced reversible watch is worth more than £2 million and is one of the most complicated watches ever made. A classic power move from Shawn.
Some of Hollywood's finest
This year’s Grammy Awards wasn’t short on Hollywood royalty. Tom Hanks and Kevin Costner (somewhat randomly) were kicking about, Ben Affleck was busy turning himself into this week’s meme machine, while Adrien Brody and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson at least got the ‘wear a pimping watch’ memo. Both have a fair bit of previous when it comes to their wristwear choices – Brody often surprises with unusual gems while Johnson is more predictable.
True to form, Brody rocked a vintage Rolex Oyster Perpetual with a twist, namely a Chome Hearts-bracelet one. Johnson went big as only he knows how to, with a Panerai Radiomir 1940 Oro Rosso. We are all for this red gold beauty – less so for the matching suit.
Living La Vida
The beanie made most of the headlines, and his sustainable, save the planet mantra was there for all to drink in as he presented the Record of the Year award to Lizzo. Less visual but arguably more baffling is the customised Rolex Deepsea with a rainbow bezel on his wrist. It looks a bit like one of those wristbands you are given at a Coldplay concert that flashes all different colours in sync with the tens of thousands of people around you while waving your arms to ‘Paradise’. While some have accused him of ruining a perfectly good looking Rolex, we quite appreciate the vibe – there’s even a bit of an ’80s TAG Heuer F1 feel to it. An expression of the frontman’s own style, if you thought Martin was going to show up not looking like a cosmic sighting, you clearly don’t know him well enough.
Kendrick knows his watches
The Mr Morale and the Big Steppers generational genius didn’t just sport a lovely Martine Rose look with MR4 x Nike Shox kicks – he went one step further and matched the shell-suit top with his turquoise stainless steel Rollie Oyster Perpetual. It’s a flex that cuts deeper than just your average colour match given Rolex discontinued these delightful coloured-dials last year. A killer move that showed his horological nous to be up there with his lyricism.
He's a Bad Bunny
For a while now, we have been banging on about some in-the-know singers and rappers favouring cute, dainty women’s watches over the usual big blingy APs and Pateks. Now Bad Bunny has gone and paired a lovely vintage Audemars Piguet women’s watch with a simple white tee/high waisted light denim jeans combo while performing at music’s biggest night (a set that caused Taylor Swift and others to get up and dance like normal tipsy people), we are confident there’s gonna be a whole lot more searching of vintage women’s watches on the world wide web now. Our advice: go check your granny’s watch collection – who knows what you might find.
Hostest with the mostest
Why wear one watch while hosting the Grammy Awards when you can flick between three like a baller. Between his blacked out AP RO, a lowkey Rolex and a Patek, the latter stood out the most. A ref. 5723/1R in rose gold with baguette-cut diamonds will do that. Noah was on sparkling form all night, quite literally.
Because I'm Happy
If you are going to have a hit song called ‘Happy’, for the song’s longevity you need to keep up the facade of being perennially happy. Slapping a Richard Mille RM 88 Tourbillon ‘Smiley’ on your wrist will do that. Very on brand for Pharrell Williams.
