At the BRIT Awards 2013 held at the O2 Arena on Wednesday night, Raymond Weil celebrated its sixth year as the awards official watch and timing partner. The brand unveiled its men’s and women’s BRITs Freelancer watches earlier this year, with open casebacks featuring a spotted Damien Hirst design. A total of 75 of the watches were given out on the night, to winners, performers and musicians including Emeli Sande, Ben Howard, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, Bryan Ferry, Taylor Swift, Calvin Harris and the band Mumford & Sons. Raymond Weil last month hosted an invite-only pre-BRITs dinner at Mosaica, a restaurant owned by British producer and artist Labrinth.
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran gained a new watch courtesy of Raymond Weil, but manged to lose an unlocked mobile phone containing his entire new and unreleased album. Fortunately for Ed his ‘A’ Team were on the ball. The missing phone was eventually found in the car that dropped Sheeran off at the Brits and handed in by the driver. Last month, Sheeran ruled out releasing his new music until 2014 so, if that mobile was permanently misplaced, he may have had to come up with a whole new plan.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift was in a “take no prisoners” mode at the Awards. She pulled out all the stops with a sheer, high-slit dress on the red carpet and then donned a black corset-like garment to perform the song she penned about her relationship with Styles: “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Apparently Swift’s racy performance also had her body-humping one of her male dancers and lying on the floor “while thrusting suggestively.”
Emeli Sande
As for the Awards themselves, the most prized award of the night, best album, went to Emeli Sande for her debut release Our Version Of Events. The emotional star gushed: ‘Wow, I think I’m a very unlikely pop star. You know this is an album I wrote because I didn’t have the confidence to say these things in person. for me, so many people have connected with this album and found strength with these words, it makes me feel incredible and it doesn’t make me feel as lonely.”
One Direction
One Direction picked up the inaugural global success prize to recognise their international sales. Last year both their albums were in the top five biggest sellers in the US. The group’s Louis Tomlinson said: ‘This is absolutely mind-blowing. We have to start off by thanking our fans. They have just been unbelievable and we obviously wouldn’t be here today without them.’
The night’s big winner Sande rounded off the show with a live performance of her tracks Clown and Next To Me.
