w2's Articles (190)

Sort by

 

Head Football Coach — Penn State University — Big Ten

James Franklin's Omega Speedmaster: 1–0, Every Week, Since the Moon

James Franklin has 102 wins at Penn State, four New Year's Six appearances, and a signature "1–0" mantra that reduces every season to a single repeating objective. On his wrist: an Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch — the only timepiece NASA ever certified for spacewalks, still produced in near-identical form to the watch that went to the moon in 1969.

James Franklin. Source: Penn State Athletics / X

Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch, ref. 310.30.42.50.01.001.

James Franklin was born in 1972 and built his coaching career through the kind of sustained institutional patience that the modern college football l

 

Head Football Coach — Penn State University — Big Ten

James Franklin's Breitling Navitimer: The Coach Who Reads Every Gauge

James Franklin is widely described as one of the best CEO-type coaches in college football — a man who manages recruiters, coordinators, player development staff, and a roster of 85 scholarship players simultaneously. His second watch: a Breitling Navitimer, a chronograph built for pilots who need to run calculations on multiple variables at once while the aircraft keeps moving.

James Franklin. Source: Penn State Athletics / X

Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph.

James Franklin has been the head coach at Penn State since 2014, and the volume of the operation he manages has grown considerably in that time. College football's transforma

 

College Football Analyst — FOX Sports / Big Noon Kickoff

Joel Klatt's Shinola Canfield Sport Chronograph: The Walk-On's Watch

Joel Klatt walked onto the Colorado Buffaloes without a scholarship offer and left as a record-setting quarterback. Now the top college football analyst on television, his Shinola Canfield Sport Chronograph carries the same philosophy: American-made, built for performance, earned rather than given.

Joel Klatt. Source: FOX Sports

Shinola Canfield Sport Chronograph

There is a particular kind of credibility that only comes from having earned your place the hard way. Joel Klatt walked on at the University of Colorado in 2002 — no scholarship, no guaranteed roster spot, just a young quarterback prepared to outwork everyone around

 

Founder & CEO, Altimeter Capital — Billionaire Investor & Shareholder Activist

Brad Gerstner's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: High Conviction on the Wrist

Brad Gerstner built Altimeter Capital on a simple, uncomfortable premise: concentrate your bets, trust your analysis, and hold. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was born from exactly the same logic — and in 1972, it nearly broke the company that made it.

Brad Gerstner wearing Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

Brad Gerstner, Altimeter Capital founder, with the AP Royal Oak.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Ref. 15500ST

The Royal Oak Ref. 15500ST — Genta's octagonal case, Tapisserie dial, integrated bracelet.

Brad Gerstner was born in 1971 and arrived in the investment world through an unconventional route — airline analysis and entrepreneurship before finance. He co-founded NLG, an online travel platform that E

 

Rapper & G-Unit Member — South Jamaica, Queens

Tony Yayo's Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono: Queens to the Wrist

Tony Yayo was present at the founding of G-Unit, survived the early years on pure loyalty, and watched the whole empire rise from a South Jamaica block. The Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono 43 is the watch that era built — designed by the same New York jeweler who dressed hip-hop royalty at its peak.

Tony Yayo wearing Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono

Tony Yayo spotted with the Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono 43 in titanium.

Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono 43mm titanium skeletonized

Jacob & Co. Epic X Chrono 43 — grade 5 titanium, skeletonized, X-lug architecture.

Born Marvin Bernard in 1978, Tony Yayo grew up in South Jamaica, Queens — the same neighborhood, the same streets, the same gravitational field as Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent. When G-Unit for

 

NFL Analyst, ESPN — Monday Night Football | Former NFL Safety & Front Office Executive

Louis Riddick's Breitling Superocean Heritage B31: Three Levels Deep

Louis Riddick has done the work at every level of the NFL — played it, managed it, and now dissects it on national television. The Breitling Superocean Heritage B31 is built exactly the same way: serious craft, no shortcuts, and nothing wasted on flash.

Louis Riddick wearing Breitling Superocean Heritage B31

Louis Riddick on ESPN with the Breitling Superocean Heritage B31.

Breitling Superocean Heritage B31 Automatic 42

Breitling Superocean Heritage B31 Automatic 42 — manufactured in-house, built to dive.

Louis Riddick came up the hard way. Born in 1969 in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, he played college football at Pittsburgh before an NFL career that stretched from 1991 to 1998, taking him through t

Singer, Songwriter & Record Producer — 15-Time Grammy Winner

Bruno Mars's Rolex Day-Date: 24K Magic, In the Metal

Bruno Mars built an entire era around gold — the sound, the look, the aspiration. The Rolex Day-Date 40 is the watch that made the same promise in eighteen-karat form.

Bruno Mars wearing yellow gold Rolex Day-Date

Bruno Mars sporting his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date 40.

Rolex Day-Date 40 yellow gold champagne dial

Rolex Day-Date 40, Ref. 228238 — yellow gold, champagne dial, fluted bezel.

Born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bruno Mars grew up surrounded by music. His father was a percussionist, his mother a singer and hula dancer, and from the age of four he was performing onstage at hi

 

College Football Analyst & Broadcaster — ESPN College GameDay · ABC · Prime Video

Kirk Herbstreit's Rolex Oyster Perpetual: The Purist's Choice

Kirk Herbstreit has spent nearly thirty years as the most recognisable voice in college football — measured, authoritative, and consistently the person in the room who has done the most homework. His Rolex Oyster Perpetual is the watch equivalent of that posture: no complications, no date window, no justification required. Just Rolex, distilled to its essential form.

Kirk Herbstreit broadcasting

Kirk Herbstreit on set. Source: ESPN / ABC

Kirk Herbstreit Rolex Oyster Perpetual wrist shot

Rolex Oyster Perpetual on Herbstreit's wrist — clean dial, no complications.

Kirk Herbstreit played quarterback at Ohio State from 1989 to 1993, captaining the Buckeyes in his senior year and earning a reputat

 

 

EV & Clean Tech YouTuber — @ItsKimJava

Kim Java's Apple Watch: The Channel That Started as a Family Video Has Now Covered 100,000 Electric Miles

In early 2016, she uploaded a Model X test drive video to share with family on the West Coast. People she didn't know started watching. Questions arrived. A channel called Like Tesla became It's Kim Java. Now she has over 200,000 subscribers, a key fob video with 2 million views, five EVs owned as a family, over 100,000 electric miles driven, and one of the most trusted independent voices in the EV space. On her wrist: an Apple Watch — the cleantech device on the wrist of the cleantech creator.

Kim Java wearing Apple Watch

Kim Java — Apple Watch on wrist. Source: @ItsKimJava

Kim Java EV YouTuber ItsKimJava

Kim Java — EV reviewer, road tripper, sustainability adv

 

 

Automotive Journalist, Host & Hagerty Media — Jason Cammisa on the Icons

Jason Cammisa's Apple Watch: The Man Who Tracks Every Car He Drives in a Spreadsheet Wears the Watch That Tracks Everything Else

Nearly 3,000 cars driven. Over 450 million YouTube views. Webby, Telly, IMFA, and IAMA awards. Automobile, Road & Track, Motor Trend, and now Hagerty Media, where Jason Cammisa on the Icons has redefined what automotive video journalism can be. Jason Cammisa is the most decorated automotive journalist of his generation — and on his wrist, an Apple Watch. He tracks the cars in a spreadsheet. He lets the watch track everything else.

Jason Cammisa wearing Apple Watch

Jason Cammisa — Apple Watch on wrist. Source: Hagerty Media

Jason Cammisa automotive journalist Hagerty

Jason Cammisa — Hagerty Media host, Icons, Revelatio

 

 

Comedian, Television Host & Automotive Enthusiast — Jay Leno's Garage (CNBC/YouTube)

Jay Leno's Omega Aqua Terra: The World's Most Famous Car Collector Wears the Watch That Works Every Day

More than 180 cars and 160 motorcycles in a Burbank garage he maintains himself, alongside a team of mechanics. 22 years hosting NBC's Tonight Show. A lifelong workaholic who has described performing stand-up simultaneously with hosting to maintain the income floor that funds the collection. A documented watch collector drawn to tool watches that match his mechanical passion. On Jay Leno's wrist: an Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra — specifically, the blue-dial 41mm version he has been photographed wearing on numerous occasions.

Jay Leno wearing Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra

Jay Leno — Omega Seamaste

 

Venture Capitalist — Palantir Co-Founder — American Optimist Host

Joe Lonsdale's Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar: The Long Game on the Wrist

Joe Lonsdale builds things designed to outlast him — Palantir, 8VC, the University of Austin, the Cicero Institute. On his wrist: a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar, a watch so mechanically certain of the future it won't need correcting until the year 2100.

Joe Lonsdale. Source: American Optimist / X

Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar detail.

Joe Lonsdale was born in 1982 and grew up to move fast. He interned at PayPal during the original boom, worked at Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, and co-founded Palantir Technologies in 2003 while still completing his computer science degree at Stanford. Palantir — named

 

NFL Quarterback — Heisman Trophy Winner — FOX Sports College Football Analyst

Matt Leinart's Breitling Superocean Heritage: Built for More Than One Career

Matt Leinart was college football royalty before the NFL reminded him that credentials and outcomes are different things. On his wrist: a Breitling Superocean Heritage B31 Automatic 42 — a watch that draws from a celebrated past but is entirely focused on what it does right now.

Matt Leinart. Source: FOX Sports / X

Breitling Superocean Heritage B31 Automatic 42.

Matt Leinart was born on May 11, 1983, in Santa Ana, California, and grew up to become the most decorated college quarterback of his generation. At USC from 2003 to 2005, he went 34–2 as a starter, won the 2004 Heisman Trophy

 

Media Entrepreneur — Barstool Sports Founder — Brick Watch Company Co-Founder

Dave Portnoy's Brick Watch: Always Earned, Never Borrowed

Most media personalities wear someone else's watch. Dave Portnoy co-founded his own. The Brick Watch Company "Always Earned" — $500, automatic, made for people who don't inherit anything — is the most Portnoy watch that could possibly exist. It says so right on the dial.

Dave Portnoy. Source: Barstool Sports / X

Brick Watch Company "Always Earned" — white dial, stainless steel bracelet.

Dave Portnoy was born on March 22, 1977, in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and grew up to build one of the most improbable media companies in American history. He launched Barstool Sports in 2003 as a print gambling newspaper distribu

 

NFL Hall of Famer — Heisman Trophy Winner — FOX Sports & ESPN Analyst

Charles Woodson's Breitling Flying B: The One That Never Played It Safe

Charles Woodson built a Hall of Fame career by doing things no one expected a cornerback to do. On his wrist: a Breitling Flying B — a discontinued tonneau-cased chronograph from Breitling's most unconventional era, bold enough to polarize collectors and confident enough not to care.

Charles Woodson. Source: FOX Sports / X

Breitling Flying B chronograph.

Charles Woodson was born on October 7, 1976, in Fremont, Ohio, and grew up to do something no one else has managed before or since: win the Heisman Trophy as a player whose primary position was on defense. At the University of Michigan in 1997, Woodson — a cornerback who

 

Co-Founder & CEO — NVIDIA Corporation

Jensen Huang's A. Lange & Söhne Datograph: The GPU of Watchmaking

Jensen Huang invented the GPU, built NVIDIA into a $3 trillion company, and still shows up to keynotes in a leather jacket. On his wrist: an A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down — the chronograph that collectors call the finest ever made, from the workshop that refuses to do anything the easy way.

Jensen Huang. Source: NVIDIA / X

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down.

Jensen Huang was born on February 17, 1963, in Tainan, Taiwan, and immigrated to the United States as a child. He earned an electrical engineering degree from Oregon State University in 1984 and a master's degree from Stanford in 1992. The following year, with two colleagues and $40,000

 

ESPN Host — Get Up / Sunday NFL Countdown / NBA Countdown

Mike Greenberg's Rolex Explorer II: The Working Man's Rolex on the Hardest-Working Man at ESPN

Mike Greenberg has spent thirty years being the first voice sports fans hear in the morning and the last authoritative one they hear before kickoff. On his wrist: a Rolex Explorer II — a 42mm tool watch built for people who operate in environments where knowing what time it is, and whether it's day or night, is not a luxury.

Mike Greenberg. Source: ESPN / X

Rolex Explorer II, ref. 226570.

Mike Greenberg was born on August 6, 1967, in New York City, grew up a die-hard Jets fan in the way that only New Yorkers from a certain era can be, and graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 19

 

Co-Founder & CEO — Meta Platforms

Mark Zuckerberg's F.P. Journe: The Collector's Choice from the World's Third-Richest Man

Mark Zuckerberg built the platform that three billion people use to signal who they are. His own signal: an F.P. Journe — the Geneva independent that produces fewer than 1,000 watches a year, is revered by the most serious collectors on earth, and is recognized by almost none of them on sight.

Mark Zuckerberg. Source: Meta / X

F.P. Journe. Source: F.P. Journe

Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, and launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room in February 2004. He was 19. By 23 he was the youngest self-made billionaire in history. By 2021 he had rebranded the parent company to Meta Platforms, absorbed Instagra

Actor — Justified • The Shield • Fallout • The Righteous Gemstones

Walton Goggins's Rolex Day-Date: The Outsider's Inside Watch

Walton Goggins has spent three decades playing the man outside the room — the criminal, the schemer, the morally combustible Southern eccentric. The Rolex Day-Date is the watch worn by the men in the room. That tension is not a contradiction. It is the whole story.

Walton Goggins wearing Rolex Day-Date

Walton Goggins spotted with the Rolex Day-Date.

Walton Goggins Rolex Day-Date detail

The Day-Date on Goggins's wrist — the President bracelet, precious metal, no apology.

Walton Goggins was born in Thomaston, Georgia in 1971 and raised in the Atlanta suburbs — the Am

 

Founder & Executive Chairman — Amazon  |  Founder — Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos's Ulysse Nardin Dual Time: Two Time Zones for a Man Who Built a Global Empire

Jeff Bezos turned a Seattle garage into the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company, then pointed his ambitions at orbit. On his wrist: a Ulysse Nardin Dual Time — a watch purpose-built for people who are always operating across more than one world simultaneously.

Jeff Bezos. Source: Blue Origin / X

Ulysse Nardin Dual Time.

Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from Princeton in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He spent several years in finance on Wall Street before quitting in 1994 to drive cross-country with his then