1. Awards wrist-checking moments

There’s nothing quite like a flurry of red carpets during awards season to help review recent design culture from the previous year. For watch enthusiasts, this means another round of spotting the most dazzling timepieces today’s stars are wearing on what might be the biggest night of their careers.

Bring on the bling: 8 jewellery watches guaranteed to turn heads

Also in red, female actor in TV nominee for musical/comedy Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building) was spotted wearing a stunning Bulgari Diamond Serpenti.

Star of The Bear, Jeremy Allen White sported a very mid-century-inspired and heavily underrated Vacheron Constantin Fiftysix, but he may well be remembered more for sporting a dazzling Tiffany & Co 21mm oval dress watch alongside a Bird on the Rock brooch when he won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for The Bear at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The third big awards ceremony for timepieces may just be the Grammy Awards. Some of our favourite moments? Best new artist winner Victoria Monét sported a striking Bulgari Magnifica Paraiba Dragon. Record of the year nominee Jon Batiste grabbed attention with a Vacheron Constantin Overseas Tourbillon with a diamond bezel. All eyes in horology may have been on Jay-Z as he did not disappoint with a stunning Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph Tiffany & Co. Ref. 5961R.

However, not even Jay-Z could match what we thought was the most striking watch moment for music’s most bankable star right now …

Androgyny and the timepiece: the male celebrities wearing women’s watches

2. Taylor Swift’s watch choker

3. Prince Mateen’s wedding wristwatch

4. LVMH Watch Week and new CEO

How to build a luxury watch collection: 4 tips for beginners

However, the conglomerate’s biggest announcement was possibly the promotion of Bernard Arnault’s second-youngest son Frédéric from CEO of Tag Heuer to CEO of LVMH Watches in January. The younger Arnault’s Tag Heuer legacy is a veritable revival of the brand via some of its most historic pieces such as the Monaco, Monza and Carrera. Coupled with this year’s diversity of highlights at LVMH Watch Week, it’s safe to say that the whole of LVMH’s high horology pursuits are in good hands.

5. Raúl Pagès was awarded the 2024 LV Watch Prize

Elsewhere in LVMH high horology, Louis Vuitton announced the first winner of the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives on February 6. Raúl Pagès was awarded the inaugural prize in Paris for his Régulateur à Détente RP1. He was selected by a finalist judge panel, which included Tag Heuer movements director Carole Forestier-Kasapi and independent watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi.

Pagès will receive a grant and one-year mentorship by a team of expert watchmakers, engineers and artisans at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, according to an announcement by LVMH.

Liu Shaochuang is the first mainland Chinese Rolex Enterprise Award winner

The RP1 features a truly unique construction in steel, sleek dial design and a pivoted detent escapement, offering increased accuracy compared to the more common self-starting lever escapement. This mechanical escapement type used to be more frequently seen in marine chronometers – precision timepieces used on ships through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Pagès piece beat 1,000 submissions, including finalists such as Simon Brette’s waiting-list-extraordinaire Chronometre Artisans and Petermann Bédat’s Chronoaphe Rattrapante.

6. Collabs galore

This year seems set to be the year of ever bolder collaborations, and the last two months have already seen brands storm out of the gate with insane pair-ups. Rolex rung in the new year by releasing a green-dialled Oyster Perpetual to celebrate 15 years of exclusive partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Girard-Perregaux linked up with Château Latour for the 1966 Château Latour Edition, which features a dial made of pebbles from the vineyard for private guests of both the legendary winery and the Villa Girard-Perregaux in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

Audemars Piguet released a new Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon with haute couture designer Tamara Ralph. The 18k pink gold piece features graded hues for a stunning effect on the dial. Also releasing a golden watch, Breitling presents versions of its Chronomat Automatic 36 in partnership with Victoria Beckham.

On the quirkier side, Casio released a limited edition Baby-G x Hello Kitty digital piece to celebrate 30 years of the Baby-G line, and 50 years of the iconic Japanese cartoon character.

Sho Hirano’s luxury watch collection, from Rolex to Harry Winston

7. History revisited

Of course, a collaboration is far from the only good reason to release a quality timepiece. Omega released two stunning astronomy-inspired watches to start the year. The Speedmaster “Dark Side Of The Moon” Apollo 8 leans heavily into the Speedmaster’s history as the Moonwatch, giving us a dial finished to match the moon, with the Apollo 8 craft as one of the watch’s hands. Meanwhile, the heavily underrated but beautiful Constellation line gets a makeover with meteorite dials in a variety of colourways.

Other houses too looked heavily to the 70s or towards their own heritage. Vacheron Constantin released a diamond-set quartz version of its integrated sporty Overseas Quartz model, leaning heavily into the Maltese cross motif. H. Moser & Cie played on the resurgence of the green dial to give us another stunning integrated sports piece, the Streamliner Tourbillon Wyoming Jade in red gold.

Dior reiterates its commitment to watchmaking by releasing an updated Chiffre Rouge line with their signature pattern etched into the dial and strap, and striking crown at four o’clock. However, Piaget may just take the cake by reintroducing the Piaget Polo through its latest model, the Polo 79 sports watch in gold.