On Thursday, Travis Scott announced a major collaboration with Audemars Piguet on a wild new version of the latter’s 41mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. Done up in chocolate brown ceramic with stylized typography and a matching strap, it’s a striking watch—but not quite as striking as the rapper’s own one-off version: Seen on his wrist this week was a special pièce unique with a beautiful “rainbow” bezel in 32 multi-colored sapphires.
While both models feature an openworked, automatic Calibre 5135 movement and a textured calfskin strap, Scott’s own piece is a serious head-turner, with a color combination that hasn’t been seen before. (Who would’ve thought brown and rainbow would work so well?!) A final hurrah from AP CEO François-Henry Bennahmias—who will be stepping down after transforming the brand into a multi-billion dollar firm—this is one partnership that, unlike many others in the watch business, doesn’t feel like a stretch. After all, there’s a reason that AP is the most quoted watch in hip-hop.
Essentially a customized take on a customized take on a production model, the watch is yet another subtle step out of a more staid, conventional Swiss mold into a pop-culture realm that more of the high-end watch brands are slowly embracing. Rendered in a cool, chocolate brown ceramic—a first for AP and a callback to one of Cactus Jack’s signature colors—the new collab (and Scott’s rainbow version of it) sees the more conservative typeface of the typical production model replaced with a hand-drawn font directly from Scott himself. Look closely at the moon phase indicator above 6 o’clock and you’ll realize that the lunar orbs have been swapped out for Cactus Jack’s smiley face logo with “sewn” eyes and mouth.
You might remember Patek’s weekly calendar watch from a couple years back with its hand-drawn typography, or Rolex’s controversial emoji watch and “Celebration” dial watch from this year. But AP has long been lighting the way with respect to high-touch, left-of-center watches—after all, no one else is putting Spider-Man on the dial of a tourbillon-equipped concept watch and charging $215,000 for it. Indeed, of the horological “Holy Trinity” at the top of the watchmaking game — Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin — it’s AP that’s most deeply infiltrated the greater zeitgeist.
Don’t get us wrong: Patek makes some of the most important watches in the world, and Vacheron crafts some of the most refined. But it was the La Brassus-based maison that began collaborating with actors, musicians, and athletes back in the 1990s and early 2000s, spreading the gospel of fine watchmaking near and far. From the brand’s work with Jay-Z all the way back in 2005 to its recent Music Edition with British producer Mark Ronson, the Swiss maison is now firmly entrenched in the minds of millions of people too young to remember the Quartz Crisis—including Scott himself.
Kevin Hart’s Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars
OK, OK, OK—one last AP. The aforementioned Audemars Piguet x Cactus Jack launch party in New York was a star-studded affair, so we weren’t terribly surprised to spot none other than Kevin Hart in the crowd. On his wrist was a stunner of a watch, a Jules Audemars minute repeater with jumping hours and skeletonized dial. (“Minute repeater” meaning that the watch audibly chimes the time down to the minute upon activation; “jumping hours” meaning that the hour is displayed via a digital readout that instantaneously changes upon the start of a new hour; “skeletonized” meaning that pieces have been carved away to reveal the movement beneath.) Complicated, handsome, and a bit out of left field, it’s the perfect choice for a seasoned collector like Hart.
Tom Holland’s Rolex GMT-Master II “Root Beer”
Tom Holland was scoped at a SAG-AFTRA Foundation event in every traveler’s favorite timepiece, the Rolex GMT-Master II. Holland, who was there to discuss his Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, sprang for the “Root Beer” version in two-tone Oystersteel and Everose gold with a bi-color, Cerachrom bezel and a matching Oyster bracelet. Built like a tank, it descends from a long line of Rolex GMT watches stretching all the way back to the early 1950s, when the brand developed the GMT-Master for Pan Am pilots and crew. Given The Crowded Room’s late-70s setting—when two-tone was in—we most certainly applaud the choice of Root Beer.
Chris Hemsworth’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
It’s most definitely an AP kind of week. Earlier we saw Chris Hemsworth strap on yet another notable Royal Oak—a collab between the brand and designer Matthew Williams. Williams’s streetwear brand 1017 Alyx 9SM previously teamed up with MAD Paris to customize some 34mm Royal Oaks, leading to an official partnership with La Brassus that yielded a special capsule collection. Hemsworth’s choice was the 18K yellow gold Royal Oak Offshore—a highly minimalist take on the model in which the subdials and hour indices have been scrubbed in favor of, well, nothing! Only the AP and Alyx wordmarks remain, making this stealthy watch an excellent choice for someone who wants to fly under the radar…gleaming mass of yellow gold aside, of course.
Rick Ross’s Rolex Day-Date
In keeping with the bejeweled theme of Travis Scott’s rainbow-bezel AP, we bring you a fully iced-out Rolex Datejust from the wrist of none other than Rick Ross. A custom take on the brand’s Datejust 41mm, it’s set with dozens of stones including on the dial, bezel, and matching Jubilee bracelet. Powered by an in-house, chronometer certified automatic movement from Rolex, the DJ is a classic for a reason—reliable and good-looking, it performs perfectly in any setting. Of course, not everyone can match a diamond-studded version to a Louis Vuitton denim shirt-jacket and a stack of Benjamins the way Ross can, but for the rest of us, there are factory watches.