Usher Won the BET Awards With a Sexy ’70s Watch

You’ve gotta hand it to Usher—the man simply doesn’t age. Not only that, but his choice of fits is remarkably consistent: Compare the picture of him from last night, accepting BET’s Lifetime Achievement award in a white blazer and jeans, to one from the 2005 Soul Train Awards where he rocked…a white dinner jacket and jeans. But what he wasn’t wearing 20 years ago was a mind-blowingly beautiful, vintage Piaget watch from the 1970s.

Sourced by the horological wizards over at Analog:Shift—the vintage and pre-owned division of the retail giant Watches of Switzerland—the timepiece in question is housed in a yellow gold case with an integrated bracelet in a basketweave pattern, making it as much a sublime piece of jewelry as it is a functional wristwatch. Its dial, meanwhile, is entirely factory-set with pavé diamonds, with only a subtle dauphine handset and the Piaget wordmark to disturb its elegant tapestry. Measuring 24mm in diameter, it features a hand-wound movement.

Greg Pallante / Courtesy Analog:Shift

For the past few years, men have gravitated toward smaller and smaller watches. And we’re not even talking about relatively smaller watches—as in sub-40mm dive watches, or 36mm dress watches, the type of fare that was once considered standard. We’re talking about dainty, sub-30mm, objectively teensy timepieces that are largely still marketed to female clientele, even when a watch company doesn’t divide its catalog into men’s and women’s pieces. But in the grand pendulum swing away from the 47mm Panerais and the 44mm IWCs of the late ‘90s and early ‘2000s, stylish men seem to be gravitating toward the far end of the size spectrum, brandishing elegant little Cartiers, unisex Chopards, and, yes, itty-bitty Piagets.

Some men will inevitably find this far-left quadrant of the diameter graph difficult to stomach, but we should remind you of a few key points. First of all, the A-11, the hand-wound mil-spec watch of the American (and other) forces during the Second World War, measured roughly 31mm wide. (It was made by several companies and thus the case diameters weren’t completely uniform.) Positively teensy, and yet, it was worn by an army of millions of battle-hardened soldiers. Secondly: Some of the most exquisite, creative, downright beautiful watches ever designed were either quite small, or they were outright designed for women’s wrists, meaning they are hella small. Are you ready to write off an entire realm of horological beauty just because of a diminutive case diameter?

Clearly, Usher is not. The man joins the ranks of the intrepid few who have been strapping on watches that ride the fine line between horlogerie and bijoux for the past two or three years—men like Timothée Chalamet, Tyler the Creator, and Bad Bunny, who clearly don’t care about the men’s-women’s divide. (Or your opinion on it, for that matter.) Usher’s Piaget is an ultra-fine, left-of-center approach to this particularly horological problem, but if you’re looking to go small, then don’t overthink it: Grab yourself a Tank Must, and join the ranks of the confident.