While Patrick Mahomes’s watch collection hasn’t quite reached Brady levels of finery, the Kansas City Chiefs QB sent a clear signal that he was going for the horological gold (both figurative and literal) when he rocked a completely iced-out Audemars Piguet Royal Oak at Game 3 of the Mavericks-Timberwolves series a few nights back.
Amongst the sea of classic Rolex tool watches in his collection (Daytonas, GMT-Master IIs, Yacht-Master IIs, etc.)—plus at least one solid-gold Omega that he wore on the cover of this very magazine—there now appears to be a Royal Oak ref. 26322OR that is absolutely festooned with precious stones.
The Royal Oak family only received its first chronograph model in 1997, 25 years after the model’s debut. (The Royal Oak Offshore chronograph debuted in 1993, but we’re talking about the thinner, standard Royal Oak here.) And according to AP, the ref. 26322OR is actually the first haute joaillerie (“high jewelry”) iteration of said chrono, featuring an 18K pink gold case fully gem-set with 736 brilliant-cut diamonds around the caseband, bezel, and bracelet, and 230 more diamonds on the dial.
Consisting of nearly eight carats of stones, this is one heck of a factory-set watch. (Indeed, while there are plenty of options for customizing high-end timepieces, factory-set pieces command a premium in the eyes of collectors, no doubt given their more “official” nature.) Other than the prodigious amount of ice, it’s largely the Royal Oak Chronograph we all know and love: Measuring 41mm in diameter, it features a triple-register chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counters; a date window at 4:30; the R.O. collection’s signature octagonal bezel; the automatic cal. 2385 movement with 40 hours of power reserve; and a matching, integrated bracelet as dreamed up by master watch designer Gérald Genta. What’s not to love?
If you can manage to source one of these watches, you should be prepared to lay out close to $200,000. So the big question is: Now that Mahomes has made his way through the more “off-the-rack” tool watches in the Rolex collection and is tackling factory-set, iced-out Royal Oaks—where do we go from here? Is the man primed to take on Brady with his 2499s and John Player Specials and rare Richard Milles? No shade to the GOAT, but perhaps now’s the time to cede the horological crown to a younger buck. Will Mahomes pick it up and wear it proudly, with a complicated, platinum, Middle Eastern-market timepiece weighing down his multi-million dollar wrist? Watch this space!
French national team captain Kylian Mbappé’s watch doesn’t have quite as many diamonds adorning it as Mahomes’s AP, but it gets lots of “watch guy” points nonetheless. The Big Bang Unico Titanium Diamonds 42mm from Hublot, housed in a satin-finished and polished titanium case, is built around a Unico automatic movement with “open heart,” nerd-approved column wheel activation, and a 72-hour power reserve. Surrounding the dial, with its dual-register chronograph layout, is a factory-set bezel with 126 diamonds arranged in two concentric rows. Paired to a black rubber strap, it’s the perfect sporty choice for one of the world’s best footballers.
It seems to be a chronograph type of week! RDJ was seen at fellow MCU star Chris Hemsworth’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in a stainless steel TAG Heuer Monaco, the modern version of the famed watch worn by none other than Steve McQueen in his 1971 film Le Mans. One of the first automatic chronographs in the world, the rectangular Monaco was powered by the brand’s groundbreaking Calibre 11 movement—and it’s still powered by that movement today. Like the one worn by McQueen, this version features a deep blue dial accented with white chronograph registers, red indices and hands, and black subregister hands. The crown is famously arranged on the left-hand side of the case—an idiosyncratic touch signifying that hand-winding isn’t necessary.
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Now here’s a watch you can’t have no matter how much you want one—at least not at the moment. IWC debuted a completely glow-in-the-dark ceramic take on its Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 and gave it to Lewis Hamilton to tool around in whilst in Monaco. (We’re curious if the Formula 1 legend had to give it back…) Long renowned for its ceramic innovations, the Schaffhausen-based watchmaker managed to create a luminous version of the material impregnated with Super-LumiNova that can glow for roughly a day after exposure to light. At the moment, this tech only exists within Hamilon’s one-off prototype, but given what one must imagine are significant R&D costs, there’s hope that it’ll eventually trickle down into full production models.
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Finally—something other than a chronograph! To be fair, Rafa’ RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon knocks the aforementioned chronos out of the park with respect to level of complication. (This is to say nothing of the watch’s Carbon TPT B.4 case, which is composed of multiple layers of carbon filaments and is 30% stronger than Carbon TPT.) The RM 27-05, despite its likely million-plus-dollar price tag, is actually meant to be knocked around: That’s why Nadal wore it strapped to his wrist during the first round of the French Open. Despite his loss, the Spaniard (and longtime RM ambassador) continued to prove his mettle as one of the world’s greatest players—and one of tennis’s most prominent haute horlogerie figureheads.