Take a Closer Look at Usher’s $5 Million Met Gala Watch

Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte

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Usher is the proud owner of many desirable watches from the likes of Rolex, Breitling, Panerai, Audemars Piguet, and Cartier. But for the 2024 Met Gala, the Super Bowl halftime performer decided to make a serious splash by wearing something never seen before.

Dressed in a custom Alexander McQueen look (complete with a cape), Usher sported the Jacob & Co. Billionaire III ‘Rubies,’ a pièce unique featuring 714 emerald- and baguette-cut stones totaling 147.65 carats. Housed in a rectangular white gold case, every possible facet is riddled with gems—to the point that the entire watch positively glows pink. Dreamt up by Jacob & Co. founder Jacob Arabo in the 2010s as a diamond-covered watch, it boasts a striking, skeletonized JCAM 39 hand-wound caliber with a tourbillon and ultra-thin bridges, which are in turn set with rubies.

With its one-minute tourbillon, 167 components, and 72-hour power reserve, this is no slouch of a movement, and the gem-set, white gold bridges are sure to stop even jaded watch nerds dead in their tracks. Designed to disappear beneath the sheen of its ruby adornment, it nevertheless provides an impressive display of horological savoir faire. Meanwhile, the gem-setting extends beyond the watch’s case and bezel all throughout the integrated bracelet, making for a virtually seamless surface of pink stones. An unabashed signifier of wealth and status, it’s par for the course for Jacob & Co, whose audacious designs are frequently seen on the wrists of actors, athletes, and other cultural figures.

(For other notable recent Jacob & Co wonders, see Lana Del Rey’s jaw-dropping Fleurs de Jardin, or the wild Flying Tourbillon choker and $400K anklet watch both worn by Rihanna.)

With a supposed $5 million price tag, the Billionaire III ‘Rubies’ is certainly not for the faint of heart, wrist, or wallet—in fact, the Met Gala is possibly the only place one might feel comfortable wearing such a piece given the plethora of security present. But boy, did it cut through the sea of outfit-watch combinations like a knife through butter, setting Usher (and his wrist) apart from those dressed in more pedestrian fare. To be sure, regardless of your personal taste and preferences, this was a watch for the ages.

John Mulaney’s Chopard L.U.C XPS

On his new Netflix series Everybody’s in LA—a ’70s-inflected spin on the classic American talk show—John Mulaney dons a Chopard L.U.C. XPS. Mulaney has been wearing a rotating cast of timepieces in the show, really showing off his versatility as a collector. This Chopard is particularly special: A 40-millimeter dress watch in white gold, the L.U.C. XPS features a black dial with applied, white gold indices, a matching handset, and a sub-seconds display at 6 o’clock, all driven by a chronometer-certified, automatic movement with micro-rotor, visible via a sapphire caseback. It’s a nice, understated watch for a mostly understated guy—and a much better value than the $12,000 Rolex he once infamously flipped for $6,000. Luckily, Mulaney didn’t take this one to Sell Your Watch Right Now NYC.

Tommy Hilfiger’s Rolex Daytona Le Mans

Making the rounds at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, none other than American fashion royalty Tommy Hilfiger was seen in the (recently-discontinued) Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ‘Le Mans.’ Produced for roughly five-and-a-half minutes in 2023, the ref. 126529LN was made to honor 100 years of driving really, really fast in Le Mans, France, and featured—surprisingly, given Rolex’s general reticence to produce vintage-inspired pieces—callbacks to the “Paul Newman” Daytonas of yore, including the whacky typography of the those watches’ “exotic” dials as seen in the chronograph totalizers. Other special features include white gold construction, the “100” tachymeter text in red, and a resale price exceeding that of a 911 GT3.

Ed Sheeran’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

The “Thinking Out Loud” singer rocked his bestie John Mayer’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak at both the Miami Grand Prix and Met Gala last week, cementing the commonplace horological aphorism that “Those who timepiece together, end up on GQ.com together.” (Or something.) Rather, we should say he rocked a watch that John Mayer designed in collaboration with the fine folks at AP—one of just 200 pieces made. Constructed of white gold, it features a perpetual calendar mechanism with weekdate indicator against a shimmering blue dial surface. One of the most beautiful executions of an AP QP, it’s also one of the coolest entries in the long and storied history of the Royal Oak collection.

Max Verstappen’s TAG Heuer Formula 1 Kith

It took all of a day for hotshot driver Max Verstappen to appear with Oracle Red Bull Formula 1 team sponsor TAG Heuer’s new Formula 1 Kith watch. (Or one version of it, anyway—there are 10 distinct colorways.) Limited to several hundred pieces each, depending upon the edition, these fun and colorful 35-millimeter quartz watches celebrate the original TAG Heuer Formula 1 watches from 1986—which spurred Kith founder Ronnie Fieg to begin collecting watches. Decades later, Fieg teamed up with TAG Heuer to launch his own take on the Formula 1, with a cool dial signature that reads both “Kith” and “Heuer.” At $1,500, they’re not quite impulse buys, but they’re certainly highly compelling—and they’re sure to soon appear on the wrists of sneakerheads (and F1 drivers) everywhere.

Originally Appeared on GQ