Welcome to Watches of the Week, where we’ll track the rarest, wildest, and most covetable watches spotted on celebrities.
Over the course of the NBA season, we witnessed Giannis Antetokounmpo take huge strides. Perhaps the most amazing leap of all: from two-time MVP to… legit watch collector. Before this season, Antetokounmpo wore only one watch: the Oyster Perpetual, Rolex’s baseline model. That all changed in the offseason, when he signed his mammoth $228 million extension with the Milwaukee Bucks while wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. Over the course of the season, he assembled even more precious timepieces, including the beloved “Panda”-dial Rolex Daytona, what looks like a blue-bezel Rolex Submariner, and even a blinged-out Rolex “Rainbow”. This is huge progress from a guy who once loaded up on free water bottles! While we certainly wouldn’t have said boo if Antetokounmpo had worn the very fun Rainbow to the city-wide championship celebration in Milwaukee, he clearly had something else in mind with this Sky-Dweller.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Rolex Sky-Dweller
You know who else wears a Rolex Sky-Dweller that looks a lot like the one on Antetokounmpo’s wrist? Michael Jordan. I’m not saying that’s the reason Giannis wore his, but I’m not not saying that, either. If a watch collector buys a specific Submariner because Steve McQueen wore it, why couldn’t Giannis do the same with MJ?
John Mayer’s Patek Philippe Aquanaut
Many collectors would ride the “Last Train Home” for a watch like this one. A timepiece collection “Shouldn’t Matter but It Does,” especially if you can buy a watch like Mayer’s sporty Patek Aquanaut. Recently, watch enthusiasts with bottomless pockets—like those at the Sun Valley conference—have awakened to the “New Light” of uber-casual luxury watches like the Aquanaut. Long waitlists for Patek models like the Nautilus and Aquanaut are now the norm, causing hopeful buyers to ask their watch dealers, “Why You No Love Me?”
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Jeff Bezos’s Omega Speedmaster
Bezos’s watch choice for space travel could not have been more on the nose. The Omega Speedmaster, famously known as the Moonwatch, is the only watch approved for NASA flight. So, naturally, it was the watch Bezos and crew wore for the first manned flight of the Amazon founder’s private space company, Blue Origin. (In Bezos’s case, a more accurate description for the Moonwatch would be the BarelyPassingtheBoundaryIntoSpaceWatch.) To celebrate the moment, Bezos even got custom straps with the company’s logo on it—just another indulgence he assumes Amazon employees and customers are happy to foot the bill for.
Henry Golding’s Patek Philippe Nautilus
Whether you’re celebrating a new album like John Mayer or promoting your new G.I. Joe movie Snake Eyes, like Henry Golding was doing this week, a sporty Patek Philippe is a great choice. Golding’s elevated Errand Running fit—black pants, black shirt, black sunglasses—is the reason a watch like the Nautilus exists. The list of watches worth almost $30,000 (at retail) that wouldn’t look out of place on Golding’s wrist basically starts and ends with the Nautilus.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Portugieser Chronograph
If you were trapped on a beach where every 30 minutes is the equivalent of an entire year—that’s the premise of Shyamalan’s new movie Old—wouldn’t you want a precise timing instrument? With this IWC Chronograph watch, Shyamalan is always prepared to be plunged into one of his own horrifying plots.