The sighting: Rihanna wore a fascinating array of jewelry to attend a Louis Vuitton Fashion Show in Paris – including a luxury watch on her neck.
The jewels: Rihanna is wearing Jacob & Co’s 47-mm white gold Brilliant Flying Tourbillon watch reconstructed to be worn as a choker. The watch features 368 diamonds and the newly designed watch choker retails for $700,000.
Rihanna accessorized her watch choker with hoop earrings and a stack of diamond tennis necklaces, although some photos from the night show her wearing a vintage sapphire tassel necklace from Joseph Saidian & Sons instead of the tennis necklaces.
The trends: Jacob & Co’s social media claims that this is the “first time that a timepiece has been worn on a neck,” which made me roll my eyes – because yes, it’s a cool and unusual style move, but absolutely not the first time that a timepiece has been worn on a neck. Watch pendants exist and have been quite popular at various times throughout history.
The PR fail did lead to a hilarious moment when Hip Hop news Twitter account @RapAlert repeated the claim that this is the first time a timepiece has been worn on the neck and was immediately corrected by the great Flava Flav himself. The 90’s rapper, who was known for wearing a giant clock around his neck, promptly informed @RapAlert that they need to brush up on their Hip Hop history.
I don’t know if Rihanna’s watch choker will start a horological neckwear trend, but I do think the insouciance and creativity of wearing traditional items in unexpected ways is extremely of the moment and relevant to jewelry lovers of all budgets.
What do we think? Wearing a $700,000 watch around your neck is a badass move. Even luxury watches are utilitarian at heart; they tell you what time it is so that you can get to your important meetings and events.
When you wear a watch this fancy in a way that means you have no way of seeing the watch’s face to read the time, you’re saying that you’re so far beyond rich that you can afford to buy a luxury watch purely for the purpose of not looking at it. Rihanna doesn’t need to know what time it is, because Rihanna is above time.
It’s unexpected. It’s impractical. It looks awesome. I’m a fan, but I don’t think it’s going to take off among us more normal folk.
Judgement: 14/10 for a really fun look that only Rihanna could pull off.
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