A closer look at the watches spotted at the 2026 Oscars, from Michael B. Jordan's vintage Piaget to Timothée Chalamet's Urban Jürgensen and more.
The 2026 Oscars unfolded as a genuine two-film contest. Sinners arrived with the largest nomination haul of the year and carried enormous cultural momentum into the ceremony. One Battle After Another, meanwhile, built steady support across guild voting and ultimately emerged with the night’s biggest prize.
That tension shaped the evening’s most closely watched races. Michael B. Jordan secured Best Actor for Sinners, overcoming a field that included Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Jessie Buckley’s Best Actress win for Hamnet had been building for months, while Sean Penn and Amy Madigan delivered the evening’s supporting acting victories.
For watch collectors, the room offered something equally compelling. Vintage pieces, serious independent watchmaking, and a few unexpected design choices appeared across nominees, presenters, and hosts, producing one of the more varied red carpet watch lineups in recent memory.
The most consequential watch of the evening belonged to Michael B. Jordan, who took home the Best Actor award for his performance in Sinners. The win capped one of the ceremony’s most closely watched races and reinforced the film’s influence on the night as a whole.
On his wrist was a vintage Piaget Ref. 9297, a watch that reflects the brand’s elegant approach to watchmaking during the 1960s and 1970s. Piaget spent that era producing ultra-thin watches that blurred the boundary between jewelry and horology, resulting in pieces that feel sculptural as much as mechanical.
Jordan’s watch choices throughout awards season have leaned toward vintage designs, suggesting a collector’s instinct rather than a purely stylist-driven selection.
Among the challengers in that same Best Actor race was Timothée Chalamet, whose performance in Marty Supreme kept him firmly in the conversation throughout the season. His arrival on the carpet added another layer to a category that remained unpredictable until the final envelope.
Anyone watching closely may have noticed the watch on his wrist. The Urban Jürgensen UJ-2 represents the revived Danish brand’s return to serious traditional watchmaking.
Chalamet has worn the UJ-2 repeatedly throughout the awards circuit, suggesting a genuine affinity for the watch rather than a one-time styling decision. The platinum case and hand-finished movement place it firmly within haute horology territory, a category rarely seen on Hollywood red carpets.
The category’s final major contender was Leonardo DiCaprio, nominated for One Battle After Another, the film that would ultimately claim Best Picture. His presence brought the familiar weight of prestige to a race otherwise defined by shifting momentum.
The watch he chose reflected a similarly understated sensibility. Rolex’s platinum Perpetual 1908 represents the brand’s modern interpretation of classical dress watchmaking, emphasizing proportion and restraint over spectacle.
Earlier appearances during the awards season had seen DiCaprio wearing sportier Rolex references, including the Daytona “Le Mans.” For the Oscars, the shift toward a dress watch felt entirely appropriate.
Much of the ceremony’s energy centered on Sinners, the nomination leader that ultimately delivered Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor victory. Director Ryan Coogler added to that momentum himself, leaving the night with the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
On his wrist was one of Cartier’s more unusual watches, the Tank à Guichets. First introduced in 1928, the watch replaces traditional hands with rotating discs visible through small apertures in the dial.
Cartier’s recent revival of the model brought one of its more unconventional historical ideas back into modern production, making it one of the evening’s most distinctive watches.
While not nominated this year, Kumail Nanjiani joined the ceremony as one of the evening’s presenters, bringing serious high horology to the red carpet.
His watch of choice was Vacheron Constantin’s Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Skeleton. The model combines one of watchmaking’s most prestigious complications with a fully openworked dial that reveals the movement’s architecture.
Skeletonized perpetual calendars are among the most technically demanding watches to produce, and seeing one paired with formalwear on the Oscars stage made for a memorable collector moment.
Also appearing as a presenter during the ceremony, Josh Groban opted for one of Patek Philippe’s most recognizable modern designs. The Nautilus Annual Calendar adds practical complication to Gérald Genta’s original sports watch design, displaying day, date, and month while requiring adjustment only once per year.
Within the Nautilus family, the reference occupies a distinctive place for collectors, balancing the everyday wearability of steel with the mechanical appeal of a useful complication.
One of the evening’s more memorable watch sightings came courtesy of Kevin O’Leary, who appeared during the ceremony wearing not one but two watches. O’Leary, who appeared in Marty Supreme this year, paired a gem-set Rolex Daytona with Cartier’s famously asymmetrical Crash. The combination was difficult to miss and quickly became one of the more widely discussed watch moments of the night.
Both watches carry strong collector recognition. The Daytona remains Rolex’s most sought-after chronograph, while the Crash has become one of Cartier’s most celebrated design icons.
Another notable Cartier appearance came from Paul Mescal, who arrived at the ceremony wearing the Tank Louis Cartier Mini. The smaller proportions of the model place it closer to Cartier’s early twentieth-century Tank designs than many modern interpretations. On the red carpet, the watch felt almost understated compared to the larger sports watches typically seen at events like this.
That restraint is part of the Tank’s enduring appeal. The design has remained fundamentally unchanged for more than a century, making it one of the most recognizable silhouettes in watchmaking.
Pedro Pascal appeared during the ceremony as one of the evening’s presenters, adding another rectangular watch to the lineup with Chanel’s Boyfriend model. The elongated case draws heavily from Art Deco design language while maintaining Chanel’s modern aesthetic.
Chanel is often associated with fashion, but its watchmaking division has quietly developed a distinct mechanical identity over the past decade.
Hosting duties fell to Conan O’Brien, who guided the ceremony through an evening that balanced prestige filmmaking with several unexpected award outcomes. On his wrist was Rolex’s recently introduced Land-Dweller, a model that blends traditional Rolex design language with a more contemporary case architecture.
The watch’s integrated bracelet and angular finishing give it a distinctly modern feel, making it one of the newer Rolex references to appear on the Oscars stage.
Zendaya arrived as one of the evening’s presenters wearing a diamond-set Rolex Lady-Datejust. The reference pairs Rolex’s classic date display with a fully gem-set bezel and dial configuration, creating a watch that sits comfortably between jewelry and traditional watchmaking.
Lady-Datejust models have long been staples of formal events, and the watch fit naturally among the evening’s more glamorous red carpet appearances.
Musician Shaboozey also appeared during the ceremony, bringing a more jewelry-driven watch choice to the lineup. Chopard’s L’Heure du Diamant emphasizes the brand’s gem-setting expertise, surrounding a simple time display with intricate diamond work.
While less frequently discussed among collectors than traditional sports watches, pieces like this highlight the broader range of watchmaking represented on the Oscars stage.
One of the more unusual watches of the evening appeared on Hudson Williams, who wore Bulgari’s Serpenti Tubogas. The design wraps around the wrist in a flexible coil, drawing inspiration from Bulgari’s long-standing fascination with serpent motifs.
Originally conceived as jewelry, the Serpenti has gradually evolved into one of the brand’s most recognizable watch designs.
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