Tom Brady Can’t Get Enough of These Rare Arabic-Dial Rolexes

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It’s little surprise that the greatest quarterback of all time has some jaw-droppingly insane watches in his collection. But it takes more than money—and we mean lots of money—to form a collection like Brady’s; it also requires genuine horological interest, and an appreciation for the avant-garde.

Hence this stunning Day-Date that he was spotted wearing while celebrating his role as a team owner in E1, the first electric boat racing championship. A reference 228396TBR in platinum, it’s a rare variant of the Day-Date set with baguette-cut diamonds in the bezel and Arabic lettering in the day and date windows. Only available in the Middle East market, it also comes in a green-dial version with a smooth bezel—which Brady owns, as well.

Arabic-dial Day-Dates have been around since the 1950s. With the incredible wealth accumulating in the Middle East following the region’s oil boom, requests for modified watches with Arabic dials began pouring into Rolex. The company satisfied this demand with special Day-Dates and other models for several decades (including those with “Stella” dials) before largely discontinuing them in the late 1970s; they were revived in 2016 with the introduction of the platinum-cased, Arabic-dial variant, a version of which Brady is seen wearing here.

Brady has been around the watch game for a long time: he was previously a brand ambassador for TAG Heuer in 2015, followed by IWC in 2019. These days, he can be spotted wearing everything from Richard Mille to Audemars Piguet. Stunning as many of those pieces are, our favorites have to be these special Day-Dates. The IYKYK factor is one thing, but there’s no denying a simply beautiful object when you see one.

Tyshawn Jones’s Rolex Oyster Perpetual “Tiffany”

Now here’s a young man with taste. If 24-year-old skateboard phenom Tyshawn Jones had been spotted wearing a Rolex Oyster Perpetual reference 1500 full stop, that would’ve been enough cause for applause: its smaller 34mm size looks unexpectedly sick on his six-foot frame. But the fact that Jones is sporting a Tiffany & Co.-signed version? Go off, young man. Jones is with super-collector FremStar, the inventor of the FremStarPoint. 

Jeezy’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph

Spotted outside Good Morning America while promoting his new book Adversity for Sale, rapper Jeezy sported what appears to be a pink gold Royal Oak Chronograph from Audemars Piguet—a breathtaking riff on the original Genta design. In this particular R.O. execution, 41mm of precious metal combines with the collection’s signature “Grande Tapisserie” dial in black to form a piece that demands your attention from across the room.

Josh Groban’s Rolex Daytona

If you’d sold over 25 million records, what watch would you wear? Evidently, if you’re multi-platinum singer Josh Groban dropping by the SiriusXM studios, you take on a decidedly laid-back vibe and pair your blue T-shirt with a black-dial Rolex Daytona—in this case, what appears to be a ceramic-bezel reference 116500LN. Versatile and inextricably linked to cool cats like actor-philanthropist-race-car-driver Paul Newman, the Daytona is never a bad choice.

John Mayer’s Rolex Day-Date “Emoji”

Love it or hate it, the Rolex Day-Date 36 “Emoji-Puzzle” is possibly the most visible, talked-about, conversation-stirring watch of 2023—and an absolute left turn for notoriously traditional Rolex. So when Fourtané Jewelers in Carmel-by-the-Sea was allocated a single piece, COO Russell Kelly placed a phone call to the world’s most famous watch collector. John Mayer showed up a few days later to collect his new Day-Date, a colorful affair with a champlevé enamel dial in a “jigsaw” motif, an “emoji” date wheel, and a day wheel whose days have been replaced with uplifting words such as “peace,” “gratitude,” and “love.” Read the full story here.