Welcome to the METaverse: Watch Spotting on the 2022 Met Gala’s Red Carpet

Over the years, the Met Gala – a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute – has become the most important red carpet in fashion. Unlike such staid ceremonies as the Oscars or Cannes, celebrities and designers are encouraged to promenade in their most outré ensembles and accessories. And for watch spotters, this means seeing rare and wonderful timepieces in the wild!

This year’s Met Gala was a tribute to the Met’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” exhibition, and the event’s theme was “Gilded Glamour.” Guests were directed to “embody the grandeur – and perhaps the dichotomy – of Gilded Age New York,” a period that lasted roughly from 1870 to 1900.
 

Of course, the theme is often just a prompt (Gigi Hadid’s red patent catsuit, for example, had no connection to the Belle Époque or anything gilded). Still, there were plenty of glittering timepieces on display.

Here are our favorites.

Before the event, we were hoping to spot a pocket watch.

Happily, Met Gala co-chair Ryan Reynolds had a pocket watch chain poking out of his vest pocket, but we never saw if it was attached to anything. We couldn’t help but notice his 18K Moonshine Gold Moonwatch from Omega peeking out from under his cuff.
 

Emma Corrin of “The Crown” fame came correct in Cartier, including wearing an antique pocket watch from 1914 clipped to her belt.

Sporting a top hat, the actress presented a fun and youthful take on the Edwardian aesthetic.
 

YouTuber and engineer Mark Rober’s blue velvet tux may not have been the most inventive look at the Gala. Still, his Jacob & Co. Astronomia watch transmitted all kinds of high society energy.
 

The cinematic legend proves that she can be Everything Everywhere All at Once in a gorgeous green Prabal Gurung gown and a diamond-studded Richard Mille RM07.

If the elegant ladies from the HBO series “The Gilded Age” could time travel, they would rock this watch.
 

Swizz Beats brought Henry James’ New York into the 21st century with his Ralph Lauren fits and a futuristic De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Tourbillon Season 1 – a limited collaboration between the producer and the watchmakers from 2021.
 

Basketball legend Dwyane Wade and partner Gabrielle Union made a stunning entrance to the Gala dressed in Versace with jewels from Tiffany & Co. Of course, Tiffany & Co. was born in New York in the Gilded Age, but Wade wore a Vacheron Constantin Patrimony on his wrist.
 

Not that it has anything to do with Gilded Glamour, but we would have been disappointed if we didn’t see at least one Patek Philippe Tiffany Nautilus. Fortunately, the business executive, talent manager, and Kris Jenner’s boyfriend did not disappoint.
 

The Notorious SJP is a Met Gala stalwart, and for 2022, she came dressed to impress in a black and white Christopher John Rogers ball gown, a towering Philip Treacy headpiece, and a very prominent Cartier Tank Solar.
 

Dressed from head wrap-to-toe in Louis Vuitton but bedazzled in Bulgari. Do I spy a little Serpenti on the singer/actor’s wrist?
 

(Lead image – Pete Davidson, wearing a Rolex Datejust with Kim Kardashian. All images courtesy, Getty.)