Michael Jordan has more cool watches than the National Watch and Clock Museum. Now, it looks like he’s added another to his collection: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked.
MJ attended the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony wearing the R.O. around his wrist. (This was technically a couple of weeks ago, but it’s MJ in a skeletonized Royal Oak—now that we’ve seen it, we are obligated to say something). Both MJ and the Royal Oak are fitting attendees at Hall of Fame ceremonies, considering both are among the greatest ever in their respective categories.
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The Royal Oak, of course, is the luxury sports watch with an integrated bracelet that Audemars Piguet released in 1972. Designed by Gérald Genta, the world’s most visible and respected watch designer, this model was meant to function as a “steel sports watch that has never been done before,” per the brief handed down from AP’s managing director at the time George Golay. Genta made a watch that lived up to that description and has since inspired an entire genre of integrated-bracelet models. Now, luxury sport watches like the Royal Oak are a category on their own and share eye-watering price tags; thin, automatic movements; and their own dedicated design language.
The Double Balance Wheel Openworked is a haute horlogerie play on the Royal Oak. Housed in a 41mm stainless steel case with the collection’s famed, integrated bracelet, it features a pink gold-toned inner bezel and openworked movement, plus pink gold bezel screws that—in the words of The Dude—“really tied the room together.” In addition to managing to make two-tone look cool again, the ref. 15407ST.OO.1220ST.02 has something else going for it: Namely, the double balance wheel. This design, which adds a second balance wheel to the movement’s balance staff, increases chronometric accuracy without adding a second gear train and differential components, which would otherwise decrease the power reserve.
Those double balance wheels are contained within Audemars Piguet’s Calibre 3132 automatic movement, which powers the watch and is visible both via the dial as well as via a sapphire crystal set into the caseback. Measuring just 4.4mm tall, this 245-component movement provides 45 hours of power reserve and makes for a watch just 9.9.mm thick. At $76,400, maybe you won’t actually be, you know, sporting in it—though we wouldn’t put it past MJ. After all, this is a guy who wore a $2M triple-axis tourbillon to his NASCAR team’s victory celebration. Maybe the Double Balance Wheel Openworked is his weekend beater?
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Tom Brady’s Patek Philippe Aquanaut
Chatting with David Beckham ahead of an Inter Miami game in Fort Lauderdale, a Patek Philippe Aquanaut was clearly visible on Tom Brady’s wrist. But this was no run-of-the-mill, time-only version of the famed luxury sports watch—rather, it appears Brady was rocking the ref. 5968G, a chronograph version equipped with flyback functionality. Housed in a 42.2mm white gold case, the automatic Caliber CH 28‑520 C/522 simplifies the typical dual- or triple-register chronograph layout by providing only a central chronograph seconds hand and a 60-minute counter in the form of a sundial above 6 o’clock. The embossed, khaki-green dial and matching, green composite strap keep things sporty—but we nerds know this is one serious piece of machinery.
Jacopo Raule
Angelina Jolie’s Cartier Tank
Appearing at the 81st Venice International Film Festival a few days ago, Angelina Jolie did us a favor by wearing her watch with the dial facing inward—which made it easy to identify as a Cartier Tank Louis as she waved at the camera. The Louis, though not the very first Tank ever developed—that would be the square Normale—is generally considered the prototypical Tank model, and the one that comes to mind when one utters the word “Tank” in a room full of people who don’t think about watches during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Jolie’s Cartier, which features a yellow gold case and a black lacquer dial, is powered by a manually-wound movement. The blue sapphire cabochon crown, a signature of the Tank collection, is of course present and accounted for.
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Naomi Osaka’s TAG Heuer Aquaracer
Naomi Osaka wore TAG’s sporty and game-ready Aquaracer while besting Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenki in women’s singles on day two of the U.S. Open this week. The 36mm steel watch—a sporty diver with 300m of water resistance—is of course perfectly suited for a sweaty round of tennis, though many players choose not to wear a watch during play, especially a heavier steel model. Osaka did seem to swap out the matching steel bracelet for a white rubber strap. The turquoise wave-pattern dial on her watch, with diamond-set indices and a magnified date window at 6 o’clock, adds some zing to an otherwise largely utilitarian design.
Jean Catuffe
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Seal’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona
Also in attendance at the U.S. Open this week was Seal, who was spotted in the stands with a Daytona poking out from a rolled-up sleeve. The ref. 126506, part of the current Rolex catalog, is cased in solid platinum, as indicated visually by the combination of an ice-blue dial and a chestnut-brown Cerachrom bezel with a tachymeter scale in white and a platinum PVD coating. Take a close look at the chronograph totalizers and you’ll realize that they’re also in brown, which neatly matches the bezel and balances the design. With Chromalight lume and the brand’s chronometer-certified 4131 movement, this is a thoroughly modern take on the chronograph—though at nearly 300 grams, it’s probably not a watch you’d want to play tennis in.
