Entrepreneur Miuccia Prada spotted wearing a Omega

At what appears to be a social event in a warm-weather location, Miuccia Prada — creative director and co-CEO of the Prada Group — is seen wearing a remarkably rare vintage Omega De Ville from the Andrew Grima 'Time in Style' collection. The piece sits comfortably on her wrist alongside a woven straw skirt and a simple white shirt, the contrast between the extravagant sculptural gold case and her understated wardrobe entirely deliberate.

Andrew Grima was arguably the most important studio jeweller Britain produced in the postwar era. Appointed jeweller to Queen Elizabeth II in 1966, he became known for encrusting raw mineral specimens into wearable sculpture. When Omega approached him in 1969 to design a capsule collection, the result was the 'Time in Style' series — nearly 60 watch designs, each with a matching jewel piece, shown at Expo '70 in Osaka. The cases were cast and hand-finished in 18ct yellow gold with Grima's characteristic hammered, irregular surfaces that reject the geometry of conventional watchmaking entirely. The dials are typically brushed gold or champagne, with baton indices and no date — distraction-free, because the case is the statement.

The movement housed within these De Ville cases is an Omega calibre 711 or 712 automatic, a reliable workhorse of the era with 17 jewels, running at 21,600 vph. But horological specifications are almost beside the point here: these watches were conceived as wearable art objects, and Omega treated them as such.

Collector significance is considerable. Grima-signed Omega pieces appear rarely at auction, and when they do, condition of the gold case — susceptible to polishing damage — is paramount. Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips have all handled examples, with prices ranging from $15,000 to well over $80,000 depending on provenance and whether the matching jewel accompanies the watch. This is a category where fashion-world collectors and horological purists overlap, which keeps demand steady.

For Miuccia Prada, whose PhD in political science informs a design philosophy that interrogates ugliness and beauty simultaneously, wearing a Grima Omega is a coherent aesthetic choice rather than mere flex. It is a watch that provokes the same questions her collections do — and it has been doing so since 1969.