Welcome to Watches of the Week, where we’ll track the rarest, wildest, and most covetable watches spotted on celebrities.
Different, unexpected, once-in-a-generation, controversial: these are just some of the qualities Russell Westbrook has in common with his new watch. Sitting courtside at NBA Summer League, Russ wore the headliner from the batch of new Rolex releases unveiled at Watches & Wonders in late March: a black-and-green bezel GMT-Master II. And while Rolex has put out revamped GMTs three out of the past five years, this isn’t just any GMT—it’s set up with a rare configuration. If you look carefully, you’ll see that both the date window and the crown (the knob jutting out from the case) are situated on the left-hand side of the watch. This is what’s known in the watch world as a destro, or a watch made special for all the lefties out there. It’s hard to find destros in general, but that’s especially high-end Rolexes. Before this GMT, the only Rolex destros that existed were custom jobs for folks like Charlie Chaplin. Westbrook’s GMT is the first-ever full production run of a destro watch from the Crown. Naturally, this is a perfect watch for Westbrook, who is something of a handedness oddball. Although he shoots with his right hand, he’s a natural lefty—a quirk he shares with Rudy Gobert and teammate (for now!) LeBron James. This watch truly embraces Westbrook’s #WhyNot philosophy.
Brad Pitt’s Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43
Sartorially speaking, Pitt is pitching a perfect game on his latest press tour, promoting Bullet Train. The actor worked with Haans Nicholas Mott, who only makes custom clothes for referred clients, on a whole string of outfits that help Pitt manifest his “clear sense of how he wants to be in the world,” the designer told GQ. Especially clear is Pitt’s newfound sense of color: he personally requested this chocolatey linen skirt, and an earlier stop saw him dress like a cantaloupe, which is the worst part of a fruit bowl but a surprisingly great hue for a suit. Pitt paired that orange set with a Breitling Navitimer in another surprisingly bold color: glacier blue. The Navitimer is a classic watch, the choice of pilots everywhere, but just this year Breitling put out new versions of the watch in funky colors, like this icy shade. An old classic refreshing its look? Pitt and this Breitling are meeting on common ground.
Steph Curry’s Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph
Something about winning his first Finals MVP really brought out the watch collector in Steph Curry. Curry wore a navy blue Cartier Santos to the championship parade, and just this week he showed off two more killer pieces: he wore a Patek Philippe Nautilus Perpetual Calendar to the premiere of NOPE and this Vacheron while hosting the ESPYs. You know all about the Nautilus by now, but this Vacheron is another luxury-sport watch tilting more towards the former descriptor. At just above $32,000, this isn’t your everyday beater watch, but it fills in more than capably for ESPY hosting duties.
Lindsey Vonn’s Rolex Daytona “Rainbow”
Speaking of luxury-sport watches that lean more luxe… Vonn’s gem-set Daytona stretches that idea to its absolute limits. This Daytona feels like it came out of a thought experiment to make the most outrageously opulent watch possible. It is the answer to a series of questions like, What if we put 36 multi-colored sapphires on the bezel? And because that’s not enough ice, how about 56 more diamonds on the case? And because that’s not enough, why not use even more diamonds as hour markers and make the subdials out of gold? Naturally, this will all live on a yellow gold case, right?
Pusha T’s Rolex GMT-Master II
Pusha T subscribes to the if-it’s-not-broke-don’t-fix-it way of life. For him, that means rapping about coke every chance he gets, even if he’s just doing an Arby’s commercial. So it makes sense he would rock this classic and definitely-not-broke version of the GMT. Pusha is a well-known Rolex fanatic, who owns over a dozen different pieces from the Crown and even named his 2018 album Daytona after one of the brand’s watches. In a video for GQ, Pusha calls a Rolex a benchmark, and few things say “I made it” like this black-and-blue “Batman” GMT.