Published on May 20, 2024
In watches, as in life, finding the right partner can be hard. For most elite watchmaking houses, the celebrity ambassador is as de rigueur as the balance wheel. Those ambassadors can serve a number of purposes—chief among them creating some hype–and no hype-machine is as complicated or potentially awful as the “collaboration watch.” The trap, of course, exists in the fact that celebrities are not watch designers, and in some cases a celebrity’s taste may not be in perfect alignment with the brand’s tenets, or their taste may just be, well, not that great. There have been a few clunkers along the way, to be sure.
Presumably, the collaboration watch actually brings the star in question into the design process—or so we are told. The extent of the star’s involvement is never fully detailed, and the occasional interview and/or testimony on the collaboration process typically serves as the only documentation of what was involved. Some, like John Mayer, are clearly watch-crazy and have obviously had a strong hand in the design, but others remain a bit more mysterious. Artists and architects are obvious bedfellows, but many singers, actors, and athletes have added their two cents to the world of haute horology. Here we’ve rounded up 10 of the most notable celebrity watch collaborations.
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John Mayer X Audemars Piguet Limited-Edition Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar
Image Credit: Audemars Piguet While Mayer is perhaps the celebrity most associated with modern watch collecting, it still came as a bit of a surprise when his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar was released early this year. AP is no stranger to celebrity collaborations – real (Travis Scott) or fictional (Spiderman) but the Mayer piece was a meeting of horological heavyweights. The piece itself is the last to house the caliber 5134, and for those who only want to focus on its good looks, it features a stunning “crystal sky” deep blue dial. We liked this one enough to add it to our Best Sports Watches of 2024 list.
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The Richard Mille RM 52-05 Tourbillon Pharrell Williams
Image Credit: Richard Mille Though Pharrell is now a busy, busy man over at LVMH he still finds time and wrist space for Richard Mille, notably sporting the RM UP -01 at his debut show in 2023. Pharell’s Millie roots run deep and include the RM 52-05 Tourbillon Pharrell Williams, which he had a hand in designing. The dial features a hand-engraved, enameled, and painted astronaut staring down on Earth and the watch is made out of titanium, cermet, white gold, and diamonds. At the time of its release, it was sold for just under one million dollars.
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Zenith Chronomaster Sport Aaron Rodgers Limited Edition
Image Credit: Zenith Quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ relationship with Zenith and then-CEO Julien Tornare began in 2020 and less than four years later a very special Chronomaster Sport was born. The obvious connection between this Zenith model and the athlete is in the name, and the watch is a diplomatic shade of green that straddles the colors of both the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, Rodgers’ former and current teams respectively. Hard to say how much input Rodgers had in this one, as sometimes a watch collaboration can me as simple as a color choice—no matter how lovely.
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Jimmy Chin X Panerai Submersible Chrono Flyback Limited Editions
Image Credit: Panerai For pro-climber and documentary filmmaker Jimmy Chin, no ordinary watch collaboration would do. Chin had been a long-time friend of Panerai by the time the Italian brand released two limited editions: The Panerai Submersible Chrono Flyback – J. Chin Edition and Panerai Submersible Chrono Flyback – J. Chin Xperience Edition. The latter of the two watches was limited to 14 and included the opportunity to join Chin in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (In fact, Robb Report’s very brave Paige Reddinger found herself scaling the Grant Tetons with Chin a few years ago.) Both watches were made of titanium and clocked in at 47mm, the Xperience edition was DLC coated with white SuperLuminova, and is everything a tough Panerai should be.
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Bremont 1947 Watches with Ronnie Wood Dials
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bremont Things are about to get very British. In 2019 Henley on Thames-based watch brand Bremont released an astonishing collection of 47 one-of-a-kind watches in its “1947 Collection.” If that wasn’t impressive enough, each 42 mm white gold watch was hand-painted by none other than Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. We suppose the fine finger work of guitar playing must have accustomed Wood to working at such a small scale—a fine line between noodling and doodling, perhaps?
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Rory Mcilroy X Omega
Image Credit: Omega Kind of surprising it took us this long to get to golf, but we finally made it with Rory McIlroy, the four-time major championship golfer from Northern Ireland. McIlroy not only has a Speedmaster celebrating his achievements, but back in 2019 he actually had a hand in designing an Omega watch. The Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Ultra Light was crafted out of the newly developed Gamma Titanium to reduce the weight of the watch down to 55 grams, and a hidden telescopic crown that in turn helps a golf swing by not digging into the wrist.
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IWC Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph Lewis Hamilton
Image Credit: IWC At this point Hamilton is almost synonymous with IWC, and for good reason. The F1 star has been a brand ambassador since 2013 and has worked on not one but three watches in his time; 2014’s Ingenieur Chronograph Edition Lewis Hamilton, 2019’s Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar, and last year’s teal Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph. It’s interesting to see Hamilton’s influence on the brand and the shift in style across the three models over time.
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H. Moser Cie. Endeavour Small Seconds with Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music
Image Credit: Moser “Icon” gets thrown around a little too often these days, but Bryan Ferry is absolutely deserving of the status. The Roxy Music frontman, Dries Van Noten muse and best-dressed man of the ‘70s turned his artistic eye to watchmaking in 2016. He teamed up with H. Moser & Cie on an Endeavor Small Seconds – a 38.8mm rose gold dress watch with an in-house HMC 321 calibre. The gold case, bits of red and historic numerical font are pure class, just like Ferry himself.
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Bulgari x Lisa
Image Credit: Bulgari Girl group Blackpink’s Lisa has one name and two Bulgari collaborations. Her most recent collab, released in 2024, is a limited edition Bulgari Bulgari model, originally designed by Gerald Genta. The watch is stainless steel and 18 carat rose gold with a mosaic dial made from 400 hand-cut mother-of-pearl tiles. The singer apparently took inspiration from Edelweiss Flower and the Swiss Alps, but the effect is rather Italian marble flooring, which works perfecftly on a Bulgari-squared timepiece.
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Francis Ford Coppola X FP Journe
Image Credit: F. P. Journe Easily the most singular watch on this list, this collaboration between director Francis Ford Coppola and FP Journe features a mechanical hand (inspired by a 16th-century prosthesis) that uses its five fingers to tell the time. Released in 2023 after a prototype was designed for the Only Watch Auction in 2021, this watch melds Journe’s incredible watchmaking with a truly out-there concept and serious Hollywood pedigree.