While most of the year’s big watch releases drop during Watches & Wonders—which is happening next week in Geneva—Rolex operates according to its own internal clock.
In fall 2020, for example, it dropped its new crop of Submariners and colorful Oyster Perpetuals with so little warning that I had to abandon dinner with my parents in order to find the nearest computer and blog it. And in 2023, as the 100th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was kicking off, the Crown dropped a bombshell on us with the introduction of its most covetable modern timepiece in decades, the limited-edition white gold “Le Mans.” Covered in tiny horological Easter eggs that collectors go nuts for, it was gone from the brand’s catalog within a year—only to be replaced by a yellow-gold version that’s equally drool-worthy (and equally limited).
Not that any of this matters much to the average Joe: Even if you had the scratch for one of these—$51,400 for the white gold version—your last name had to be, say, Jordan or Federer in order to receive an allocation. Or DiCaprio, for that matter: Just this week, Rolex’s newest Testimonee was spotted wearing one while courtside at a Lakers game. Guess being a Crown brand ambassador has some nifty perks, eh? (Cue Mel Brooks: “It’s good to be the king!”)
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DiCaprio has long been known to have an affinity for the Daytona: Back in the ’90s he was photographed in a Zenith-powered ref. 16520, while we’ve seen him recently wearing the 2000s-era ref. 116509-ARPD and the white gold ref. 116509 “Racing.” Those pieces are certainly plenty cool; however, the “Le Mans” is an entirely different animal: While Rolex is known to iterate endlessly upon a model family for decades and decades, it rarely puts vintage-influenced touches into a modern watch.
That, however, is precisely what it did with the “Le Mans,” using a numerical typeface from the exotic-dial “Paul Newman” Daytonas in the chronograph totalizers and keeping the backgrounds fully white, as in old “reverse Panda” versions. Then there are the Le Mans–specific callouts that make the watch so neat: The 12-hour register has been converted to a 24-hour register to honor the race’s running length, and the “100” on the tachymeter bezel is executed in red in honor of the race’s 100th anniversary. Stuff like this is like catnip to watch collectors, and to Rolex collectors in particular.
Given all its quirks and, frankly, fairly un-Rolex-like historical self-reference, the “Le Mans” Daytona is easily one of the hottest watches on Earth right now. (If you wanna buy one, you’ve got to go to the secondary market—and you’ve got to be prepared to drop a cool quarter-milly.)
Let’s hope this man has a good security detail!
LeBron James’s Vacheron Constantin 222
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One of the biggest hits of Watches & Wonders 2022 was Vacheron Constantin’s reintroduction of the 222, its Royal Oak/Nautilus–like luxury sports watch from the 1970s. The horological world promptly went nuts, with celebs like Brad Pitt spotted wearing both the new version as well as vintage styles. Earlier this year the brand hit another home run by dropping a steel version with a beautiful blue dial, sending collectors into a positive tizzy. LeBron James has evidently been bitten by the Vacheron bug: Spotted at a Lakers vs. Nuggets game this week, he paired the blue-dial 222 to a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey, gesticulating just slowly enough for us to clock the iconic model’s integrated bracelet and unique case profile.
Swizz Beatz’s De Bethune Kind of Two GMT “Season 3”
Courtesy of De Bethune
Laurent Xavier Moulin
You’ve gotta be pretty deep down the horological rabbit hole before you discover a brand like De Bethune, but once you do, you can’t help but respect the high-end independent’s penchant for ultra-creative watchmaking: Combining pocket-watch-inspired shapes with cutting-edge tech and incredible dials, De Bethune consistently delivers some of the watch world’s most unusual and compelling fare. Partnering with artist and producer Swizz Beatz for the third time, the brand released the Kind of Two GMT “Season 3,” a 10-piece limited-edition travel watch featuring two dials accessible via a unique flipping mechanism. Spotted at the new De Bethune Lounge at The 1916 Company New York, Beatz wore his own allocation with a spiffy charcoal gray double-breasted suit.
Ed Sheeran’s Mystery IWC
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At first it was an Omega thing: Put an as-yet-unreleased watch on Daniel Craig’s wrist, send 007 out into the world, and sit back while we all ogle it at 7x magnification, trying desperately to get an ID. Then other brands—Breitling, for example—began catching on, and now it feels like this is the watch world’s latest PR stunt. Well, we’re here for it. Ed Sheeran wore something extra special to a Clippers vs. Knicks game this week, and frankly, we don’t know what the heck it is. Internet sleuths have pointed out that it looks like a blacked-out IWC Ingenieur—though such a thing doesn’t currently exist in the brand’s catalog. Could we be in for a ceramic version of the Genta-designed luxury sports watch next week at Watches & Wonders? Watch this space…
Will Smith’s Berneron Mirage
Jas Davis
Now here’s a nifty sighting: Will Smith sat courtside at a 76ers game wearing a Berneron Mirage. A distinctly IYKYK sort of timepiece, the Mirage takes inspiration from the shaped classics of Gilbert Albert for Patek Philippe, Cartier, and others, offering a case, dial, and even movement that looks as if it emerged from one of Salvador Dali’s dreams. Housed in a white gold 38mm case and featuring a Prussian Blue dial, its exploded numerals are mirrored by its unique Calibre 233 hand-wound movement, which similarly looks distended due to beautifully curved bridges. A masterpiece of modern horology, the watch—available in four different iterations—is allocated through the next several years of production.