Music’s Biggest Watch Aficionados

To the public, John Mayer is best known as a Grammy-winning crooner, guitarist and songwriter; but to the cultish watch community, he has earned a reputation for being a discerning watch collects or.

His first luxury watch was an IWC Big Pilot, which he wore so often that he was nicknamed “Big Pilot” by his tour managers. His love for mechanical watches has only grown since then. Today, his watches are stored in bank vaults and are worth “tens of millions”, and he has become the go-to guy for other celebrities (such as Drake and Aziz Anzari) when it comes to buying watches. Photo from John Mayer on instagrams

Any fan of Jay-Z would know that he’s not shy about name-dropping his favorite luxury brands in his songs. And he raps about his watches. A lot.

While he does have different watch houses in his collects ion, he seems to be partial to his Rolex, Hublot and Audemars Piguet watches if we were to judge based on his songs.

Jay supports the brands so much that he even worked with Audemars and Hublot for limited edition watches. In 2005, Audemars Piguet came out with a special edition Jay-Z Royal Oak Offshore – it had his signature engraved on the caseback, a special diamond-studded “10” on the dial, and an iPod loaded with Jay’s albums to date. In 2013, he also worked with Hublot for the Shawn Carter by Hublot collects ion. Photos from Hublot and Hublot on Twitter

Apart from being one of the most influential guitarists of all t.mes , Eric Clapton also has an enviable collects ion of watches – a number of which are very rare vintage pieces.

He’s most often seen wearing his Rolex GTNN or Milgauss, but a peek into his collects ion will reveal watches that even some aficionados probably didn’t know exist.

Ever heard of a “Yachtmaster Daytona“? It’s a prototype created by Rolex in the 70’s that has evolved into today’s Yachtmaster. Other astounding models in his keep are his Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 in platinum – a model that has only been produced twice; a Paul Newman Rolex Daytona on a Fatstrap, which is the exact way Paul Newman wore his; and an “Oyster Albino” Daytona ref. 6263 which has a completely white dial.