Borrowed Time: How Brands Get Their Timepieces On The Red Carpet

The months-long ritual of award shows is officially underway. And each event provides a parade of celebrities dressed up formal wear, expensive jewels, fancy shoes, and of course, the most luxurious timepieces.



Many watch fans live for these red carpet moments, immediately turning to the internet to see who wore what (and who wore it best). It’s fun for collectors—especially those who are in it for the lifestyle as much as they are for the art behind their favorite movements.
 

As someone who has covered the red carpet and even walked a few (does two count as a few?), I thought it might be interesting to look at the behind-the-scenes mechanics and machinations behind those award show moments to understand why it’s so important for watch brands to have these Hollywood moments.
 

It’s a leap of faith for brands to lend out timepieces. For super expensive timepieces, a security escort must be hired. And if a watch gets scratched along the way it instantly loses its value. And hitching one’s wagon to someone else’s brand is also a risk.

Many years ago, one high-end horology concern heard that a certain multiple award-winning star was ending their relationship with another luxury watchmaker. An industry friend was asked to act as a go-between for the two parties, but the friend, having heard of the talent's off-screen shenanigans strongly argued against the union. Hopefully, they were well rewarded for this advice because no one would touch that person with a ten-foot-pole today.
 

Then there is the most immediate risk: even with all the access, insurance and risk, there’s no guarantee that the celebrity will end up wearing the borrowed watch. I was covering last year's Academy Awards and working with publicists in real time to confirm which watches the stars were wearing. I asked one PR person which model an award winner was wearing (my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and I learned the hard way always to confirm the details), and they messaged back "I didn't even know they were wearing it until they stepped out on the runway." That story had a happy ending.
 

Now here’s the story where I learned why triple fact checking is so important. Under pressure to scoop the competition, I wrote about which make a certain brand ambassador wore to a certain music awards show based on a press release. But after looking closely at the photo, the brand realized that the singer was wearing another company's watch. See, celebrity gossip is fun.

With all the perils as well as a hefty price tag, what’s in it for the brands?

The goal of any product placement — from watches to Fiji water—is to increase visibility and sales. If you compare the price of taking out a full page ad in a magazine (roughly $20,000) to the cost of lending out a watch, the brand is getting good value — especially if you sell a few $20,000 dollar watches in the process.
 

And thanks to the insatiable appetite of the internet, these images can go viral quite quickly. Almost every lifestyle and watch site had a roundup of star styles the morning after the Golden Globes ceremony.

Brands also get a lot of extra exposure by partnering with young Hollywood. These stars not only connect with new buyers, but they are also fond of sharing wrist shots of their borrowed timepieces. Michael B. Jordan, who GQ named one of the best-dressed men at the 2019 Golden Globes, posted a picture of himself on the red carpet wearing a diamond-encrusted Piaget on his Instagram account, which has 8.9 million followers. In 2017, the average weekday circulation of the New York Times was 540,000 copies.
 

It’s impossible to track if an image of Michael B. Jordan wearing a blindingly diamond encrusted out Piaget directly drove a customer straight to a boutique to buy that very same timepiece. But they might be inspired to start saving up for an entry-level Polo.

It must also be noted that some brands are better equipped to dress celebrities. At this year's Golden Globes, for example, IWC, Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre crushed the competition because they already have well-established relationships with the film community, sponsoring film festivals and screenings on the road to award show season. Other manufacturers have taken note—as part of their new Film Squad, Adam Driver represented Breitling at the ceremony.
 

So who wins the red carpet? In a way, we all do. The public was inspired and entertained. Emerging stars got to wear a beautiful watch (if only for one night), and the brands might just be breaking even on the bet that a celebrity might publicize their brand, but they also get to experience the joy of creativity and the chance to celebrate their own accomplishments with a worldwide audience.