Nicole Kidman’s archive Omega
A watch covered in 1,762 diamonds is not really a watch any more. That is not a criticism — it is the entire point, and it has a lesson in it.
Wearing: The Practical Magic 2 premiere in London — A rare Omega Constellation set with 1,762 diamonds, with elongated gold earrings
Nicole Kidman wore a custom Chanel gown to the London premiere of Practical Magic 2, finished with elongated gold earrings and a rare Omega Constellation pulled from the brand's own archives — a timepiece covered in 1,762 diamonds.
Once a watch is set like that it stops functioning as a watch, and everybody involved knows it. A dial paved in stones has no contrast left: the hands are metal, the dial is sparkling metal and glass, and finding one against the other at a glance is genuinely difficult. What she is wearing is a bracelet that happens to contain a movement.
That sounds like a criticism and it is not. It is a clarification, and it is useful to the rest of us, because the same trade-off operates all the way down the price range. Every decorative addition to a watch face costs you legibility. Crystals around the bezel, a mother-of-pearl dial, gold hands on a champagne face, no numerals — each one looks lovely and each one makes the time slightly harder to read.
So the honest question when you are buying is which of the two things you actually want. If it is jewellery, buy the decorated one and enjoy it, and check your phone for the time like everyone else. If you genuinely want to glance at your wrist in a dim restaurant and know the time, you need contrast: a pale dial with dark hands, or a dark dial with pale ones, and numerals rather than markers. Those two watches are different objects and no amount of money merges them.
What transfers
Decide whether you are buying jewellery or a watch, because every crystal and every tone-on-tone dial costs you legibility. If you want to read the time at a glance, buy contrast — pale dial with dark hands, or the reverse, and real numerals. If you want the sparkle, buy it happily, and stop expecting it to also be useful.
