Timepieces are getting noisy.
While Kendrick Lamar dazzled 133.5 million people with his Super Bowl Halftime performance and $1300 Celine bootcut jeans, another rapper was in the arena being praised for his wrist work.
Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter wore a Richard Mille RM 66 Flying Tourbillon watch to the big game. The timepiece, valued at $3 million, is one of two watches made in the orange and red sapphire colorway. The timepiece featured what Wrist Check co-founder Perri Dash called a “rock star hand on the watch face.”
Jay-Z was one of the first celebrities to wear the brand’s earliest pieces in the early 2000s according to Dash, who hosts popular pod, Wrist Check. “This is what Jay Z does,” said Dash. “He’s got some of the best pieces known to all collectors.”
Not to be outdone, G.O.A.T. quarterback Tom Brady wore a $740,000 orange sapphire, tourbillon timepiece from Jacob & Co. with a gem set dial. The watch, called the Caviar Tourbillion, contains over 130 invisibly set yellow sapphires. “If you turn [the watch] over it’s got an exhibition case that allows you to see the movement, and the bridges on the movement are also paved with diamonds,” Dash explained of the timepiece which is one of 18 in existence. “There’s also a power reserve indicator, also made of sapphires.”
These gem-set pieces are incredibly difficult to manufacture. The process is done by highly experienced watch makers, as the process of collecting one hundred stones of the same color can take months.
While quiet luxury seemed to be on its way out on NYFW runways this past season, the luxury watch industry appears to be following suit. With a shift to brighter, louder timepieces, celebrities are opting for more boisterous arm candy.
“Watches have always been quiet luxury, if you’re not shooting for something that’s blingy or a Rolex,” Dash said. “Watches are so topical today, for a lot of people it really is a status statement or a fashion statement. People want you to know that they’re wearing something.”
Brady, who received his first watch after graduating high school from his parents, recently partnered with Sotherbys to auction off a selection of his watch collection. The haul: $4.6 million.
That’s certainly a loud bounty.
Watch prices continue to rise even as the demand declines. And brands such as Rolex and Patek Phillipe advertise their pieces as not just watches, but a lifestyle. Elite watch collectors like Jay-Z and Tom Brady play big boy toy games at the highest level.
“For these two guys in particular," said Dash, "it means a great deal to walk into a space and to be around people who can’t get something that’s on their wrist.”