A$AP Rocky Wore a Grenade-Shaped Timepiece Around His Neck

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Rihanna wearing a Jacob & Co. watch as a choker remains the coolest watch moment of the year. No one understands that better than her maybe-husband A$AP Rocky, who had a front-row seat to her horological innovation. Rocky, clearly inspired by that move recently found his own timepiece to wear around his neck. The rapper donned an explosive piece of jewelry, the AMNY x L’Epée 1839 Exo Grenade, in the video for his new song “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n).”

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The piece is a collaboration between celebrity jeweler Alex Moss and historic, fanciful clockmakers L’Epée 1839. It is an absolutely outrageous time-telling device: the grenade-shaped base is made out of aluminum and then set with 34.27 carats of diamonds. The clock took three whole years to produce, according to Moss’s website.

The real breakthrough here isn’t that it’s worn around the neck—I won’t abide Flavor Flav erasure—but the totally distinctive shape, based on a WWII-era MKII grenade. The pin is cleverly used as a time-setting device here.

Moss and L’Epée 1839 claim there’s a deeper meaning behind the Exo Grenade. The clock is “the personification of the luxury of time and how it can be taken from you at any moment,” according to a press release from AMNY. “Winding this piece ultimately forces you to focus on the moment, to cherish it, because right now is the only thing that is truly guaranteed in life.” Some people use the Headspace app for that type of clarity, others need a $150,000 bomb-shaped, diamond-covered clock. The latter sounds a lot more fun.

Lionel Messi’s Patek Philippe Aquanaut

Messi seemingly came to the United States to do two things: score a bunch of goals and wear killer watches. He’s already put three balls in the back of the net, and has strapped on a trio of dream Patek Philippes to match. For his first game with Inter Miami, La Pulga arrived at the arena wearing Patek’s sporty Aquanaut with a traffic-cone orange band. This followed the other Aquanaut—from the brand’s ladies’ collection, featuring a rainbow of diamonds—which he wore during his introductory press conference. And then there was a small-scale kerfuffle this week when a couple of watch spotting accounts thought that Messi was wearing a custom purple-dial one-of-one Nautilus. That would have been huge! Unfortunately, it was merely a trick of the light, and accounts like @InsaneLuxuryLife had to issue a retraction. “We wanted to clarify it because we’re not used to making this kind of mistake especially on such important watches.” Drama! While it wasn’t a custom purple watch, it’s still a killer: the new white-gold Nautilus that replaced the beloved 5711.

Christopher Nolan’s Hamilton Khaki Field “Murph”

Chris Nolan is a longtime fan of the Hamilton brand, which is cinema royalty. The director’s new movie Oppenheimer, about a dude who proves pleated pants are cool—thank you, king—features three different vintage Hamilton watches. Nolan also worked with the brand on custom pieces for Tenet and Interstellar. The watch on his wrist for his interview with Fox & Friends (??) is from the latter—a replica of the Hamilton worn by Murph (played by Jessica Chastain) in Nolan’s space epic. The piece is deceptively simple looking, but the word “Eureka” is actually printed on the seconds hand in Morse code. It’s a subtle nod to the moment Matthew McConaughey’s character Cooper sends Murph the data that will save humanity through her—you guessed it—seconds hand. God, I love that movie.

Sabrina Ionescu’s Rolex Datejust

The GOAT three-point contest performer and New York Liberty guard can do it all. This week she threw the first pitch at Yankee Stadium wearing what appears to be her go-to watch, a Rolex Datejust. The Datejust is a perfect starter watch for a professional hooper—and a big step up from the Apple Watch Ionescu was rocking regularly before this. Owning a Rolex means you’ve graduated from getting emails buzzed onto your wrist.

Sergio Pérez’s Tag Heuer Monaco

Steve McQueen famously wore the Tag Heuer Monaco in the 1971 movie Le Mans. This new special edition of the watch, however—all black save for a few electronic pops of turquoise—looks more like something out of Tron.