While the Oscars and the Met Gala top the sartorial food chain, sporting events like the US Open, Super Bowl, and pretty much every NBA game are where serious, uninhibited watch spotting takes place these days. Unlike the aforementioned black-tie events where collectors spring for dressier pieces, the US Open encourages celebs to bring out the best of the best from their collection. This year, we’ve already spotted elegant Cartiers, grail-level Rolex Daytonas, and complicated marvels from high-end independents on players actively participating in a match! A true smorgasbord of Swiss variety, such events are the new standard in horo-sartorial peacocking. Need proof? Just check out some of our favorites below, from a watch that John Mayer and Ed Sheeran are loving to classic sports pieces from Rolex and TAG Heuer.
Steve Carell’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona
Jennifer Pottheiser/USTA
Steve Carell clearly knows that it’s hard to go wrong with a platinum Daytona. His ref. 116506 is a spiffy take on one of the world’s most famous racing chronographs, boasting a 40-mm platinum case, a matching platinum Oyster bracelet, a brown Cerachrom bezel insert with tachymeter scale, an ice-blue dial, and diamond-set hour markers. Rolex only pairs that very special shade of blue with its platinum watch, making for a cool IYKYK signifier. Launched in 2013, this reference (and its non-diamond-set brother) celebrated the Daytona’s 50th anniversary—albeit in a typically Rolex, unofficial sort of way—by offering something distinctive and special rather than a simple stainless steel watch. There are also Eastern Arabic and gem-set versions floating around, but we’d argue that Carell’s diamond-set version is sufficiently fly.
Jeremy Allen White’s Louis Vuitton Tambour
Jean Catuffe
Louis Vuitton has made a serious name for itself in the watchmaking industry over the past couple of years. The brand showed that it was seriously committed to the craft in the summer of 2023 when it heavily redesigned its flagship Tabmour, taking the watch’s thick case and slimming it down to make it much more wearable. And look at how far the luxury label has come: none other than Jeremy Allen White showed up to the US Open with the revamped Tambour on his wrist. The actor may be set to play Bruce Springsteen in the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, but for at least one day, he was Mr. Tambourine Man.
Russell Wilson’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph
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This weekend, Wilson will take the field at MetLife Stadium for his first game as the starting quarterback of the New York Giants. He’s spent the run-up to the season enjoying the sights in his new home, whether that means sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden or enjoying the tennis in Queens. Wilson is wearing a watch befitting his status as a superstar athlete. The Royal Oak is a watch beloved across every league and counts LeBron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Patrick Mahomes, and Michael Jordan as loyalists.
Andrey Rublev’s Vanguart Orb
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Courtesy of Vanguart
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Courtesy of Vanguart
Russian tennis phenom Andrey Rublev is merely the latest in a series of high-profile collectors to co-sign the Orb, a six-figure watch from the relatively young brand Vanguart. Founded by veterans of Renaud et Papi—a workshop that supplies top-end movements and complications for the very best watch brands in the world, including Audemars Piguet—Vanguart has found fans in the likes of John Mayer and Ed Sheeran. Pulling a tennis racket through 14 Gs puts serious pressure on a watch, however—especially one with a flying tourbillon—proving the technological bona fides of this wild design.
Fat Joe’s Patek Philippe Nautilus
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Rapper Fat Joe didn’t just bring Patek to the US Open. The rapper’s Reference 5990/1A-001 is a Nautilus Flyback Chronograph Travel Time, a riff on Gérald Genta’s famed luxury sports watch with both a flyback chronograph and the maison’s signature travel complication. Using two pushers on the left-hand case flank, the wearer can jump a fourth hand forward or backward in one-hour intervals, quickly setting the second time zone during travel. Conventional pushers on the right-hand case flank control the chronograph, which is displayed through a 60-minute totalizer and central chronograph seconds. (There’s no running seconds, however.) A date display at 12 o’clock rounds out the feature set on this unusual and compelling piece.
Stephen Colbert’s TAG Heuer Monaco
ANGELA WEISS/Getty Images
Colbert wore a dope black-dialed TAG Heuer Monaco, the watch that Steve McQueen made famous in 1971’s Le Mans. Equipped with the Calibre 12—a riff on the brand’s famed automatic Calibre 11, one of the world’s first automatic chronograph movements—it features a square-shaped, 39-mm stainless steel case with a black dial, a dual-register chronograph display, a date window at 6 o’clock, and an inner 1/5th-seconds track. Unlike original Calibre 11-equipped models—whose crown was situated on the left case flank—the crown is situated on the right side like that of a conventional chronograph.
Rami Malek’s Cartier Tank
Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Looking dashing while chatting with Anna Wintour, Rami Malek brandished his black-dialed Cartier Tank Must, a more affordable entry point into the maison’s famed dress watch. Powered by a quartz movement and paired to a black rubber strap, this simple steel timepiece looks like a million bucks—and this despite the fact that it can be had for $3,650, a relative bargain when compared to solid-gold or platinum references. Malek, of course, is a Cartier brand ambassador, and to that end has been spotted in many cool Cartiers, from the Pasha to the Santos. However, despite his access to the depths of the Parisian maison’s catalog, he is loyal to this entry-level Tank.
Tyler James Williams’ Cartier Tank
Jean Catuffe
Actor and rapper Tyler James Williams pulled a page from the Rami Malek playbook—or perhaps it was the other way around—when he wore the same black-dialed Cartier Tank Must to the Open. When the Parisian jeweler launched its “Must de Cartier” back in the 1970s, it included a line of gold-plated Tank watches that were more affordable than their solid-gold counterparts. The modern Tank Must—launched back in ‘21 during the Pandemic—continues this theme, offering more approachable versions of the Tank Louis. Some of these, like the vintage originals, have colored lacquer dials in the mode of Williams’ and Malek’s black-dialed version. (Others, such as green and burgundy versions, were available at launch and have since dropped out of the catalog, or are only available in solid-gold Louis references.)
