It started (like so many things) with Rihanna. On two occasions in 2023 (Pharrell William’s debut show for Louis Vuitton, and the Las Vegas Grand Prix), the Bad Gal and mum-of-three wore two six-figure diamond-encrusted Jacob & Co watches – and not on her wrist. Instead, she wore one around her neck and the other as an anklet.
Then, in 2024, Taylor Swift wore a vintage Concord watch reimagined as a diamond choker by A-list favourite Lorraine Schwartz to the Grammys, its hands set perpetually to midnight. An horological hot potato, the watch wasn’t only a nod to Swift’s album , which picked up three gongs that night. It was also an Easter egg of a wink to Clara Bow, the gilded era It-girl, whose flapper dresses, finger waves and long stays in psychiatric facilities informed her then forthcoming follow-up, The Tortured Poets Department.
Tyla’s turn on the red carpet at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards in LA on Sunday night suggests the former British cover star clocked Rihanna and Taylor’s unexpected approach to the accessory. The “Water” singer styled her fresh-off-the-runway snakeskin-motif pencil skirt and bra from Mowalola’s spring/summer 2027 collection with a suite of Chopard jewels which, alongside white gold and diamond studs and rings, included a watch with a turquoise dial and strap, circled by diamonds and fastened around her ankle.
Individuality is currently the watchword when it comes to jewellery (we continue to bang the drum for coloured stones and chunky settings and antique gems), so it’s no surprise to see the red carpet serving as a testing ground for ripping up the rule book. Ahead of the next time Tyla hits up an awards show, we’d love to direct her attention to Chanel’s Mademoiselle Prive Bouton Lion Ring, a gobstopper cocktail ring that conceals a watch dial beneath a lion’s head-motif clasp, crafted in black onyx, diamonds, gold and lacquer. She put it best herself: “Put her in Chanel.”