Inside John Mayer’s Star-Studded Audemars Piguet Launch Occasion

About six weeks in the past, John Mayer—the music world’s largest watch collector—introduced his long-anticipated collaboration with none aside from Audemars Piguet. A glowing white-gold Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar with a price ticket the scale of a apartment in a mid-size American metropolis, it’s undeniably stunning and extremely uncommon. What was lacking, nonetheless, was an enormous get together to rejoice mentioned collaboration. That lastly occurred this week in LA.

Audemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet

Held at Sky View Property, a hanging non-public residence in Bel Air, the large bash welcomed collectors, associates, and press to take a look at the brand new R.O. and chat with Mr. Mayer. “It began as a watch that I’d have simply needed to have essentially the most,” he advised a small group of collectors earlier than the occasion. “I despatched it to [former Audemars CEO] François-Henry Bennahmias, and he appreciated it a lot that he needed to make it and provide it to folks. And I simply love that [it] represents the watch that I most need to take a look at and be shocked by the morning that it’s introduced.”

That watch from Mayer, AP’s new “Artistic Conduit,” has change into some of the talked-about timepieces of the yr. And in case you missed it a month in the past, it definitely deserves the hype: Housed in a 41mm white gold case measuring simply 9.1 mm tall, it’ll be acquainted to those that already respect Royal Oak QPs—however the magic to this one is within the dial. So as to obtain its shimmering impact, an electroformed die is used to stamp the brass dial plate till a mesh of crystal-like shapes takes type. Afterward, the dial is PVD-coated in its signature deep blue coloration, leading to a glance that exceeds even the brand’s comparable “Tuscan” hand-hammered dials in magnificence.

Throughout the watch, the Manufacture Calibre 5134 computerized motion powers a bevy of calendar capabilities: Along with time-telling, there’s a mix month-and-lear-year indicator at 12 o’clock, a date indicator at 3 o’clock, a moon section show at 6 o’clock, a day indicator at 9 o’clock, and every week quantity indicator across the dial periphery, indicated by a central pointer hand in mild blue. The dial, resembling, in Mayer’s phrases, “a moonless sky,” serves as the proper body for the poetic moon section complication, subtly tying collectively the watch’s problems to its general aesthetic.

In his new function for the model, it’s now as much as Mayer to function a kind of bridge between Audemars Piguet and its collectors—which is what the primary two hours of the evening’s proceedings had been for. The guitarist mingled with a few of AP’s most essential American clientele, together with a number of different massive names in music—Finneas, Chris Stapleton, and Zedd amongst them. The newest evolution in an extended historical past of accumulating and enthusiasm for AP, the brand new place is an thrilling new growth for one of many maison’s biggest proponents. “When any person you admire trusts you and brings you into their world the best way AP has,” Mayer mentioned, “that, to me, is the very best honor.”

Simon Ackerman

Idris Elba’s Rolex GMT-Grasp II

Showing at a photo-call for his new Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff sequence, Knuckles, Idris Elba wore some of the readily identifiable latest Rollies, the GMT-Grasp II “Sprite.” With its black and inexperienced bezel and “destro” configuration—the crown is on the left facet of the case—it’s excellent for southpaws (or righties who’d choose a watch with a crown that won’t dig into their wrists). Past that, it’s a regular current-gen GMT-Grasp II with the power to trace a second time zone, a bi-color Cerachrom bezel, and an computerized COSC-certified motion. Nonetheless, the entire left-hand-crown factor may need thrown Elba because it does many different people—the actor appeared to have by chance slipped it on the wrong way up.

Mariel Tyler/Getty Pictures

Daybreak Stanley’s Rolex GMT-Grasp II

South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Daybreak Stanley is understood for her eager sartorial sensibilities—and, notably, these sensibilities lengthen to her selection in wristwear. Because the Gamecocks sealed the deal on their third nationwide championship win, Stanley was noticed in a Rolex GMT-Grasp II “Pepsi” on a Jubilee bracelet. Arguably one of the best identified configuration of maybe the world’s most well-known journey watch, the enduring blue-and-red look that first debuted in 1954 was notoriously tough to re-create within the brand’s Cerachrom ceramic. At first, Rolex launched a contemporary “Pepsi” solely in white gold; however then, in 2022, a metal model as soon as once more joined the combo, bringing this beloved mannequin again into the dialog.

Ben Jared

Scottie Scheffler’s Rolex Submariner “Hulk”

Donning the Inexperienced Jacket for the second time, Scottie Scheffler blew up the horological web not for his unimaginable golf game—however by rocking a green-dialed Rolex Submariner “Hulk” ref. 116610LV. Discontinued in 2020, the “Hulk” builds upon the legacy of 2003’s Fiftieth-anniversary Submariner, the “Kermit,” which featured a inexperienced bezel and black dial. The extra verdant 40mm Hulk, with its “super” case and “maxi” dial, was changed by the brand new crop of 41mm Subs, which now embody a green-bezel mannequin referred to by collectors on the “Starbucks.” (Sheesh—Rolex collectors and their nicknames, eh?) In any case: Kudos to this gentleman for not solely being ranked one of the best golfer on this planet however for having the sartorial sense to match his jacket to his timepiece.

WWE/Getty Pictures

Cody Rhodes’s Rolex Datejust

In clinching the Undisputed WWE Championship at Wrestlemania XL in Philly, Cody Rhodes fulfilled his late father’s dream. But it surely will get higher: In celebration of this important second, Triple H and two fellow WWE execs introduced the brand new champ a wrapped field with a phenomenal solid-gold Rolex Datejust inside—a gesture that introduced the youthful Rhodes to tears. You see, years in the past Dusty Rhodes, having fallen on arduous instances, needed to pawn his personal DJ as a way to ship his son Cody to appearing college. Now, having achieved a dream that eluded his dad, Cody obtained the identical make and mannequin that Dusty lovingly gave up. (Watches, a lot as all of us love them, are simply hunks of steel. Tales like this are what really give them which means.)