The Very Best Watches at the SAG Awards

Typically, the Screen Actors Guild Awards come and go, quietly touching down between the Golden Globes and the Oscars. But this year is different! Today, the SAG award organizers must be saying a little prayer for Brad Pitt, who gave a headline-making speech encouraging everyone to, essentially, keep doing the work, and whose amicable chat with Jennifer Aniston provided tabloids with material for the next year. Stacked on top of this bundle of news was a treasure chest of extremely excellent watches. There's a reason for that: the SAGs are dressy enough for tuxedos, but not as formal and serious as, say, the Oscars. So while Pitt got away with wearing a Kansas City Chiefs cap mid-carpet, many wore casual watch-world equivalents: sporty Tag Heuers and special-edition Seamasters. Then there was Alex Rodriguez...

Alex Rodriguez’s Rolex Cellini Dual Time

Alex Rodriquez is the best and most famous Instagram Fiancé to ever live. He was at it again during the SAGs, gleefully taking selfies with and pictures of nominee Jennifer Lopez. While performing his duties, his excellent watch kept making appearances. Rodriquez wore a Rolex Cellini Dual Time, one of the brand’s more understated watches. It was a choice that screamed Best Supporting Boyfriend—elegant enough to fit in on a red carpet but quiet enough to not wrestle any of the spotlight away from Lopez.

Mahershala Ali’s Montblanc Star Legacy Automatic Date

When one of Hollywood’s most handsome leading men wears a watch, we sit up and pay attention. When that same watch, or slight variations of it, is worn by the super-handsome triumvirate of Denzel Washington, Brett Gelman, and Mahershala Ali, we start feverishly checking our bank accounts and calling around to local shops. The Montblanc Star Legacy Automatic, an understated super-elegant watch, is that piece.

Charlie Heaton’s Cartier Tank Louis

Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton took no chances Sunday night: there is absolutely no way to mess up wearing Cartier Tank. I’m a bit of a Tank purist—to me, it doesn’t get better than the gold case plus black leather band—but Heaton makes me reconsider the virtues of the brown leather strap.

Pedro Pascal’s 'Seamaster' Special City Edition

The typical Seamaster is brawny and flashy: a chunky bezel made for diving, and lines simulating waves streaking across the ocean-blue dial. But Pascal found a model of the watch reimagined for the red carpet. The actor’s sparse special-edition Seamaster is inspired by New York City’s gray landscape of skyscrapers and concrete. The back of the watch is even engraved with landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building.

Dan Levy’s Cartier Santos

Dan Levy provided GQ with a couple of his essential pieces, including Loewe loafers and Prada pants back in November, but somehow left out this Cartier Santos. We don’t blame him: the watch is really a red-carpet secret weapon. It’s classy enough for the awards ceremony but, because of its steel case and band, durable enough for the raucous afterparty.

Colin Jost’s Tag Heuer Monaco

Colin Jost’s Tag Heuer Monaco is a true-blue icon: a watch beloved by Steve McQueen, who wore the piece in the 1971 movie Le Mans. Ever since, the oddball, square-shaped watch has been associated with the actor’s style and impossible-to-replicate cool. The Monaco, a racing watch, isn’t the typical piece you’d find on the red carpet, but as sports watches have come to dominate all other aspects of our watch-wearing lives, it only makes sense for them to start encroaching on award shows, too.

Liam Cunningham’s Jaeger-Lecoultre Reverso Tribute Duoface

Cunningham wore a sports-world fixture elevated for the red carpet. Jaeger-Lecoultre originally developed the watch with a reversible dial so that polo players could protect it by flipping the face over, in favor of a sturdy steel shell. Over the decades, though, the brand’s made the piece out of all sorts of luxury materials, like pink gold as seen on Cunningham.

Originally Appeared on GQ