When Tyler Reddick gunned his no. 45 23XI Racing Chumba Casino Toyota into first place at the Daytona 500, securing the team’s victory at NASCAR’s marquee event, no one—except perhaps Reddick himself—was more thrilled than team co-owner Michael Jordan. “I’m ecstatic,” Jordan said, “I don’t even know what to say. It feels like I won a championship, but until I get my ring, I won’t even know.”
Despite the Daytona International Speedway’s close association with the Rolex Daytona, which was named after the track, Jordan chose to wear another revered but much lesser-known Swiss brand for the big day. MJ’s choice was the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Technique, a skeletonized sequel of sorts to Greubel Forsey’s Double Tourbillon 30˚ Contemporain Vision, the high-end independent brand’s very first watch from 2004. A long-time fan of Greubel, Jordan knows a good, complicated timepiece when he sees one.
And complicated the Double Tourbillon 30° Technique is. Housed in a substantial black ADLC-coated titanium case measuring 47.5mm—which looks tiny on MJ’s substantial wrist—it features as its centerpiece a double tourbillon in which an outer cage rotating once every four minutes contains an interior cage inclined at 30 degrees that rotates once per minute. Got all that? TL;DR: The tourbillon cancels out timing errors resulting from “positional” errors—i.e, the wristwatch being held in different positions as it’s worn on the wrist. (In reality, a $15 digital watch is more accurate and cheaper…but we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to admire the precision of a multi-six-figure piece of Swiss horological artistry!)
The double tourbillon isn’t even the half of it. The open sapphire dial reveals not only the spinning cages containing the watch’s balance, but also luminous white gold hands, a 120-hour power reserve with an indicator at 3 o’clock, four co-axial mainspring barrels, and a small-seconds indicator at 9 o’clock. The movement finishing is, of course, superb, with interior angles galore and lots of golden chatons—the small components that fix jewels within a watch movement—calling back to classical watchmaking. All of which is to say, it’s a watch befitting an enthusiast of the highest order, with or without a NASCAR championship ring.
Appearing at the 8th Annual American Black Film Festival Honors in Los Angeles this week, Dwayne Johnson wore an Alpine Eagle Summit, a gem-set version of the Swiss brand’s luxury sports watch introduced in 2019. Crafted from 18K white gold, it features a spectacular Zinal blue dial with 3.02 carats worth of blue and purple sapphires set within the bezel. Achieved via a PVD treatment over a brass surface, the dial is named after the Zinal Glacier and transitions between blue and purple hues in a radial pattern that evokes an eagle’s iris.
While a heavy stainless steel sports watch might weigh down the wrist of a lesser player, Tiger Woods is in a category all his own, which is why he can pull off rocking a Rolex Sea-Dweller during a high-pressure game at the Genesis Invitational. While the Crown has beefier watches—the Deepsea Challenge is 50mm wide!—the ref. 126660 is no slouch of a diver: At 44mm wide and nearly 18mm thick, its substantial heft helps it to reach depths of nearly 4,000 feet—a depth at which no game of golf has ever been attempted. (Hey, there’s a first time for everything!) For those who dig the look but prefer a less chunky profile, the Submariner is always a classic choice.
Knicks power forward Karl-Anthony Towns might not be allowed to wear a watch on the court, but he was happy to strap one on during NBA All-Star Weekend while hoisting his Shooting Stars trophy. Rather than springing for an off-the-shelf model, Towns represented Swiss high-end independent watchmaker David Candaux with a pièce unique version of the DC7 Genesis, a watch made in concert with artist Miguel Angel, also known as Saturno. Inspired by the story of Genesis, it features a biplanar tourbillon and a uniquely symmetrical movement, the hand-wound cal. 1700. Effectively a miniature painting that happens to tell the time, it conveniently features a rubber strap in “Knicks” orange.
Miami Heat guard Norman Powell was dressed to the nines during All-Star Weekend in a snazzy bespoke suit, complete with his initials on the front and Understand The Grind embroidered across the back. For us watch guys, though, it wasn’t the tailoring that stood out; it was Powell’s H. Moser & Cie Pioneer Flying Hours Aventurine, a spectacular watch with a complication rooted in 17th-century clocks. In place of traditional hands, it employs a system of rotating satellite arms that show the hours as they spin around the dial. Moser’s modified version features a glittering aventurine dial that appears like the night sky, making it one of the most attractive timepieces in the brand’s wide-ranging collection.