Every Watch On The MET Gala 2026 Red Carpet, Ranked From Impressive To Absolutely Unhinged
5 min read
The 2026 MET Gala, themed "Costume Art," turned out to be one of the strongest watch nights in the event's history. From a $3 million Jacob & Co. to a 34-year-old platinum Cartier pulled straight from a private collection, here is every notable timepiece spotted on the red carpet on May 4th.
Dwayne Johnson: Jacob & Co. Billionaire III
It was Dwayne Johnson's first ever MET Gala appearance, and he did not show up quietly. Paired with a Thom Browne skirt ensemble, Johnson wore the Jacob & Co. Billionaire III, a watch so outrageously over-engineered it borders on sculpture. The 54mm white gold case is set with 714 emerald-cut white diamonds weighing a combined 129.61 carats. Underneath all that ice sits a manual skeleton tourbillon movement with a 72-hour power reserve. Only 18 of these exist worldwide. Price: $3 million.
Jay-Z: Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300
Jay-Z is a known watch collector of serious calibre, and the Grandmaster Chime is widely regarded as the most complicated wristwatch Patek Philippe has ever made. The Ref. 6300 features no fewer than 20 complications including a grande sonnerie, a petite sonnerie, a minute repeater, an alarm, and a perpetual calendar with a secular equation of time. Jay-Z paired it with Louis Vuitton for the occasion. Market value sits well north of £2 million.
Rami Malek: Cartier Crash (1992, Platinum)
The watch of the night for collectors. Rami Malek has long been known as one of Hollywood's most serious horological minds, and he delivered again with a vintage 1992 platinum Cartier Crash. The Crash is one of the most visually arresting watches ever made, with an asymmetric, melted case that draws inevitable comparisons to Salvador Dalí's "The Persistence of Memory." The fact that Malek wore it to an event literally themed around fashion as art says everything about how well he understands both worlds.
Skepta: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin
Skepta chose the most maximalist version of an already iconic watch. His yellow-gold Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin was set with 1,528 brilliant-cut yellow sapphires totaling over 10 carats across the case and bracelet. The Royal Oak "Jumbo" in its standard form is already one of the most important sports watches ever made. What Skepta wore to the MET Gala was something else entirely.
Colman Domingo: Omega Constellation "Manhattan" (1982, Museum Piece)
Colman Domingo is rarely wrong on a red carpet, and his watch game matched his outfit energy perfectly. He wore a 1980s Omega Constellation "Manhattan" pulled directly from Omega's own museum archive, pairing it with a bright Valentino look. The "Manhattan" variant of the Constellation, introduced in the early 1980s, is immediately recognisable by its integrated bracelet and coin-edge bezel. Wearing a museum loan to the MET Gala is a very Colman Domingo move.
Connor Storrie: Omega Constellation Observatory (New, Moonshine Gold)
On the other end of the Omega spectrum, Connor Storrie debuted one of the brand's newest references: the Constellation Observatory in Moonshine gold on a Moonshine gold bracelet. Moonshine is Omega's proprietary 18-karat gold alloy, developed for its resistance to fading. Storrie paired the watch with Saint Laurent, and the warm tone of the gold worked with the outfit rather than competing with it.
Tyriq Withers: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds (New)
Tyriq Withers debuted a brand-new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso on the MET Gala carpet, with the cocktail watch crafted in white gold and set with emeralds. The Reverso has been in continuous production since 1931, making it one of the longest-lived watch designs in history, originally engineered so polo players could flip the case over to protect the crystal during a match. On the MET Gala carpet in 2026, it worked as a piece of wearable Art Deco jewelry.
Finn Wolfhard: Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds (New)
"Stranger Things" actor Finn Wolfhard wore the same new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso as Tyriq Withers but with sapphires in place of emeralds. Both men appeared to be wearing the debut red carpet outing of the same new reference, making it one of the more coordinated brand moments of the evening.
Bad Bunny: Cartier Cloche (1996)
Bad Bunny brought a 1996 Cartier Cloche to the carpet, one of Cartier's most unusual and charming designs. The Cloche is a sideways watch, meaning the movement is mounted horizontally so that when removed from the wrist it reads like a desk clock. It is one of those Cartier pieces that almost no one outside the collector community knows about, which is exactly the point of wearing it to an event watched by millions.
The 2026 MET Gala confirmed what the watch industry has known for a few years: the event has quietly become one of horology's most visible stages. With the "Fashion Is Art" dress code in play, watches were not accessories so much as arguments. Rami Malek's Cartier Crash made the case for watches as Surrealist objects. Colman Domingo's museum-loan Constellation treated a vintage watch like a historical artefact. Dwayne Johnson's Jacob & Co. treated one like a monument. Between Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Omega, Hublot, Jacob & Co., IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Bulgari, Breitling, and Rolex, nearly every major Swiss maison had a presence on May 4th. That breadth, across genres from vintage to brand new, from tool watch DNA to pure jewellery, is what made 2026 one of the more interesting years for watches at the MET.
No articles found
