Welcome to Watches of the Week, where we’ll track the rarest, wildest, and most covetable watches spotted on celebrities.
AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic could have any watch he wants. It seems he does in fact have every watch anyone could want: a Rolex “Rainbow” Daytona, Patek Philippe Nautilus, the “John Mayer” green-dial Daytona, and “Hulk” Submariner. So it speaks to the success of Omega’s collaboration with Swatch that the man who could buy out a Tourneau still wants to wear the $260 Moonswatch.
The Moonswatch was met with a frenzy when it first launched in March of this year. Swatch and Omega reworked the latter’s iconic Moonwatch in 11 different colorways and with names like “Mission to Jupiter” and “Mission to Pluto.” On the day of the release, Swatch stores were forced to close down early for the day to deal with the swelling masses of hopeful customers. One man who queued for days at a Swatch shop in London was reportedly held up at knife point for his spot at the head of the line, he told the New York Times. For Ibrahimovic, there was (probably) no need for anyone to wield a knife. Predictably, the watches hit secondary retailers immediately, and while prices skyrocketed, they were still solidly in the orbit of someone like Ibra.
This week, the striker wore the red-and-white “Mission to Mars” version of the Moonswatch. This particular watch’s colors pay tribute to Omega’s Alaska Project watches. This experimental piece was intended for NASA astronauts and built to endure space’s harsh environment in 1969. Its oversized candy-shell red bezel was meant to protect the watch against extreme heat. Decades later, in 2008, Omega made a retail version of the cult-favorite piece. The history of the Mission to Mars’s colorway has made it one of the more sought-after Moonswatches. But it’s really hard to go wrong with any version of a $260 watch getting multiple celebrity endorsements.
Mescal’s Cartier is something special. There’s just something right about black and gold together: it’s the peanut butter and jelly (or maybe the caviar and potato chips) of watch combos. Cartier was smart to throttle back on all the other details here—it’s simply a gold case, gold hands, and a black dial with nothing but the Cartier logo. For a guy like Mescal, who has plenty of red-carpet events to attend, it’s a piece he’ll have ample opportunities to wear.
Don’t look now, but Jordan is on a watch heater. Maybe thanks to his new watch pal Jonathan Majors? This week, Jordan hit the red carpet for one of the year’s most anticipated movies, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, wearing one of the year’s very best watches, the 222. This piece was one of my favorites to come out of the industry’s big tradeshow Watches & Wonders earlier this year. Vacheron brought the model back after 37 years out of production, and the 222 offers up everything that’s great about the super-popular Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. All were part of the original blending of sport and luxury pieces in the ‘70s—but the 222 has 100% more gold.
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Barrymore has really come into her own stylewise recently. The actress-turned-talk-show-host has been pretty loyal to a signature look as of late: an oversized suit, often with the puffy cuffs turned way up her forearms, and a bulletproof Rolex watch. Barrymore has a killer collection that sticks mostly to the classics, heavy on models like the Submariner and Datejust. This week, while interviewing George Clooney on The Drew Barrymore Show, she broke out the red-and-blue “Pepsi” GMT. Credit to Nick Gould for the spot.
When it comes to watches, few things are cooler than salmon-colored dials. Only the finest pieces in the world come in this hue and Nanjiani’s Vacheron is no exception. In addition to the fish-inspired dial, the watch sports a platinum case and a pair of moons that are three-dimensional and made out of the same material. This is what Marvel money gets you!