Welcome to Watches of the Week, where we’ll track the rarest, wildest, and most covetable watches spotted on celebrities.
An engraving is a sweet way to personalize a watch, whether you want to etch a heartfelt message, warning, or foul-mouthed dismissal into the caseback. However, getting a brand like Rolex to muck up its precision-made dials with your company’s logo is a privilege reserved for the very few. While the practice is nonexistent now, before the turn of the century it was possible for corporations and even big events to get commemorative Rolex pieces with custom dials. The Comex Rolex Submariners, made for the French diving company of the same name, are highly valuable; Air Kings with the Domino’s logo, originally given to store managers who hit $20,000 worth of weekly sales, are sleeper hits; and once upon a time Rolex made watches for Cartier with the jeweler’s logo on it.
While Rolex has let this tradition fall by the wayside, its little-brother brand Tudor is carrying the baton. This week, David Beckham wore a Tudor Pelagos emblazoned with the seal of Inter Miami, the expansion MLS team the soccer star has been working on since 2014 (Find a close-up here). Those in the market for co-branded dials have found a willing dance partner in Tudor. Recently, the brand has made dials with the London Metropolitan Police Royalty and Specialist Protection Unit and the Qatar Watch Club, an enthusiast group, the watch blog Time and Tide found. Also this week, GQ cover star Steven Yeun keeps it classy and Chris Paul wears yet another fine Patek Philippe.
Even if you can’t get one custom-made for you or your work project, the Pelagos is an excellent watch. While the Black Bay is Tudor’s most buzzed-about watch, the Pelagos is its workhorse. The Pelagos is Tudor’s true tool watch: the watch is the first in the Rolex family to be made from titanium, which makes it very light despite its 42mm size. The watch can also dive to 500 meters; the Black Bay, for comparison, is waterproof to 200. All the while, the Pelagos maintains the rugged good looks we expect from a Tudor, with its crisp matte dial and snowflake hands.
Steven Yeun has proven this week he’s nothing if not versatile. In our GQ cover shoot with the actor, Yeun pulled off cowboy hats, fat Western belt buckles, bolo ties, and fringe pants like a rodeo regular. The night before his cover dropped, Yeun got all dressed up in Prada for the Critic’s Choice Awards, along with a watch from the equally versatile Omega. While the brand is most famous for its very sporty Speedmaster, Yeun’s De Ville Trésor is a dress watch par excellence. This cowboy cleans up nicely.
Call him Chris Patek! Just a few weeks ago, we featured Paul wearing an incredibly rare Patek World Time, and now he’s back with another stunner from the brand. Collectors who were sitting on the waitlist for the recently discontinued Nautilus 5711, look away.
Everyone else: enjoy this rose-gold version of the watch on Paul’s wrist. While the 5711 is beloved for its simplicity—blue dial plus stainless steel case and only a date window—that was clearly a little too tame for Paul.
The Omega Seamaster is technically another one of the brand’s sport watches. Introduced in 1993 and famously worn by Pierce Brosnan’s 007, the Seamaster is a watch that Bond could wear to a black-tie event he knows is going to end in mayhem. This version is one you’d wear to a soirée without an action-flick ending, though. Kaluuya’s all-gold version of the Seamaster might be far removed from its maritime heritage, but if you look closely, you’ll see a nice nod to its original purpose. The dial’s vertically divided design is meant to evoke the look of planks on a boat’s deck.
Paul Mescal knows how to pull off jewelry: the crush of 2020 single-handedly powered a chain necklace obsession when his character Connell wore one in last summer’s Normal People. Now, he’s making the Cartier Santos look just as cool—not that the timepiece needs much help. 175,000 people follow an Instagram account dedicated to Connell’s chain necklace; consider me a one-man stan account for Mescal’s Cartier.