George Clooney and a killer Omega watch go together like Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan. Still, the Seamaster 37-mm Milano Cortina 2026 he sprung for when attending the screening of his new film Jay Kelly at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival this week deserves extra points on the horological scale.
It’s no accident that this diminutive take on the Seamaster looks like a piece from an earlier era. The Seamaster was born in 1948 not as a highly robust, chunky tool of intrepid divers and soldiers, but as a smaller, dressier piece. The story goes something like this: René Bannwart, a young employee at Omega during the Second World War, was put in charge of a new “creation” department tasked with coming up with in-house designs. Inspired by the brand’s timepieces made for British forces during the War, he designed a watch that was water resistant, automatically powered, and that featured luminescent radium on the dial for visibility at night. Omega sales director Adolphe Vallat loved the watch, and the Seamaster was born—just in time for the brand to work the 1948 London Olympics. Omega has long contributed to the games with highly precise stopwatches and chronographs. Today, of course, the Olympics uses digital timing tools from the Swiss watchmaker.
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The Seamaster Milano Cortina 2026 is a bit bigger than that original 34.5-mm watch but not by much. The new version of the watch borrows several elements from vintage Seamasters, including the sharply angular lugs and pointed hour markers. The vintage nods don’t end there, either. The Seamaster signature, style of the hashed minute track, and the style of “dauphine” hands are all cribbed from models from the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Milano Cortina leans into vintage watches to beautiful effect but dials up modern features where it matters. The crystal is made of scratch-resistant sapphire rather than acrylic, and the case features 100 meters of water resistance where older models might have only gone 30 or 50 meters deep.
Clooney is a longtime Omega ambassador and he wears the watches like they’re old friends. In recent years, the superstar actor has really stretched his legs to wander around the Swiss watchmakers’ catalog. One day he’s wearing a historic version of the De Ville from the archives and another he’s taking the grail-caliber all-gold Speedmaster for a spin. And at this point he knows the Omega he wants to wear on the daily.
The Seamaster Milano Cortina is a different beast. The watch is, of course, a tribute to the upcoming Olympic Games that will take place in Italy next February. Omega, with its long history of timing the most important sporting event in the world, often drops an anticipatory watch ahead of each edition, with several more to follow as the Games officially kick off. This one, with its luxurious materials, handsome design, and vintage inspiration, is a far cry from some of those more technical watches made of titanium and ceramic. But on Clooney’s wrist at the Venice International Film Festival, it’s the perfect timepiece.
Noah Baumbach’s Tank Louis Cartier
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Noah Baumbach, the man who directed Clooney in Jay Kelly, wore a lovely Tank Louis Cartier in Venice this week. A “Large” model in 18K yellow gold, this still-dainty execution features the model’s famous Roman-numeral dial with railroad minute track, blued steel sword hands, and blue cabochon crown. Unlike other Large-size Tank Louis Cartier references, this one is powered not by hand-wound or automatic caliber, but by a quartz movement, and comes paired to a dark grey alligator strap with tone-on-tone stitching and a gold pin buckle. Though it wasn’t the first Tank ever designed—that would be what we today refer to as the “Normale”—the Tank Louis Cartier is, in many ways, the ur-Tank, and the ultimate dress watch.
Amal Clooney’s Cartier Baignoire
Jacopo Raule
Speaking of Cartier, speaking of the Venice International Film Festival, and speaking of folks with the last name “Clooney”: Amal Clooney was spotted wearing the Cartier of the moment, the Baignoire in the brand’s Mini size in 18K yellow gold. Cartier has long made rounded, elongated, and otherwise shaped watch cases that broke away from the more conventional rectangular forms of the early 20th century, but the Baignoire’s origins are somewhat murkier than those of other famous models from the Parisian maison. Though the word “baignoire” is French for “bathtub,” some maintain that the inspiration is actually oval-shaped VIP seats found in opera houses. Either way, the result is a delicate design that’s been appearing on wrists all over the world ever since Cartier introduced a new version in 2023.
Eli Manning and Jaxson Dart’s NFL-Themed Breitlings
Courtesy of Breitling
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Courtesy of Breitling
This week, Breitling announced the exciting news that it’s now the official global luxury timepiece of the NFL. In celebration, the New York Giants’ past and future attended the event with two versions of Breitling’s NFL-themed watches. Two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning sprung for the Chronomat B01 42 from last year’s NFL licensee collection. Meanwhile, the Giants’ first-round draft pick Jaxson Dart wore the Chronomat GMT 40 Giants edition, a new watch stemming from the brand’s collaborative collection made in partnership with the NFL. The new collection uses the teams’ colors for the dial and hand design rather than branding them overtly with logos. A classy touch.
Taylor Swift’s Cartier Santos Damoiselle
Courtesy of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
In the early 20th century, Louis Cartier designed a special watch—really, the first dedicated pilot’s watch—for Brazilian aviator and inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. Since then, the Santos has spawned all sorts of popular references, but perhaps none has gotten more love recently than the Demoiselle worn by Taylor Swift in her engagement announcement to Travis Kelce. Introduced in 2008 as a lighter, more feminine take on the Santos, the model was discontinued in 2022, making Swift’s diamond-studded version even more precious. Featuring yellow gold construction with a matching multi-link bracelet, a diamond-set bezel and lug, and a silvered dial with black Roman numeral indices, blued steel sword hands, and an open minute track, the “Taylor Swift” is now poised to shoot into the rarefied air of collector grail watches.
