Idris Elba Wore One of the Best $500 Watches on the Market

Collage: Gabe Conte

A celebrity wearing a wildly expensive, rare watch is all well and good. Fun, even. But what’s even more striking is a celebrity wearing a $450 watch—i.e. a piece we mere mortals might actually be able to afford.

The celebrity in question here is Idris Elba, and the watch on his wrist was a Brew Metric. The acclaimed British actor appeared on the Chunkz & Filly Show on YouTube to speak about a campaign he’s involved with that helps spread awareness around and prevent knife crime—though of course there was plenty of light-hearted banter concerning a mutual love of football between hosts and guests. Elba’s gleaming steel wrist candy, however, caught us completely off guard.

The Brew Metric is a 1970s-inspired timepiece with an integrated bracelet and a chronograph. Powered by the VK68 Meca-Quartz movement, it combines battery operation with retro-style looks, joyful pops of color, and excellent proportions (36mm x 41.5mm). (Meca-Quartz technology features semi-sweep seconds, which gives them a hybrid feel that watch enthusiasts particularly like.) Available in numerous colorways, Elba’s Retro Dial version is among our favorites.

Brew Watches is the brainchild of New Jersey-based Jonathan Ferrer, a young industrial designer with an impressive background and a knack for conceiving compelling (and affordable) watches. Given that his father is a jewelry designer for Tiffany & Co. and his grandfather did the same for Cartier, one might assume that Jonathan would have gone a more traditional route and found himself working at a large maison. But after studying industrial design and interning at Movado, he bootstrapped a fresh “microbrand” in 2015 via a Kickstarter campaign. That’s how Brew was born.

Brew’s name is a reference to espresso culture, where timing the perfect pull is elevated to an art form. (Look at the dials of his watches and you’ll notice a special demarcation at 25-35 seconds for this precise reason.) Measuring said espresso pull via a watch is itself based upon the idea of the “telephone timer,” a scale dividing up the minutes register on certain vintage chronographs into 3-minute intervals, which are said to be used to measure long-distance telephone calls.

But back to Mr. Elba and the Metric. Elba has of course been spotted with all manner of “watch guy” fare over the years—Rolexes, IWCs, Cartiers, etc. But he’s also been the face of Gucci’s watch division, which pumps out much more down-to-Earth models. To see him wearing such an affordable piece that also ticks all the “watch guy” boxes is a joy—and a true coup for a microbrand like Brew..

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked “Cactus Jack”

Footballing great Zlatan Ibrahimovic was spotted this week at a match between Udinese Calcio and AC Milan wearing one of the standout releases of the past few months, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked “Cactus Jack.” Designed by Travis Scott—the dial typography was copied directly from his handwriting—the watch is $200K worth of haute horlogerie magic, featuring a perpetual calendar complication with an openworked dial and a case fashioned from brown ceramic. With its playful typeface and moonphase, sterling horological bona fides, and cool looks, it’s a watch that looks perfectly at home on the wrist of one of the most dominant strikers of his generation.

Antoine Arnault’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 6263

Vice-chairman of Christian Dior and oldest son of LVMH founder Bernard Arnault, Antoine Arnault is a member of one of the most successful and important families in global luxury. Spotted on his wrist this past week at Dior’s show during Paris Fashion Week was a favorite of the vintage watch world: the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 6263. Housed in a 37.5mm stainless steel case and produced from the early 1970s through 1987, this hand-wound version of the world’s most famous chronograph features screw-down pushers and the Valjoux 727 movement. Mr. Arnault’s, however, features a highly sought-after “tropical” dial, in which the black enamel has turned a uniform brown over time—technically a defect, this look has become highly collectible over the past few years.

Pusha T’s Dior Chiffre Rouge

Pusha T showed his brand loyalty at the Dior Men’s Fall 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week at École Militaire by strapping on the brand’s new Chiffre Rouge chronograph. Part of a revived collection of five new pieces, the watch updates Hedi Slimane’s original design by upping the “watch guy” pedigree: the chronograph version features an El Primero movement from Zenith, one of the most important calibers ever produced and groundbreaking for its automatic winding. Measuring 41mm in matte black, the chrono has a triple-register display and 4:30 date window, plus the red accents on the handset, chrono reset button, and date window that are common to the collection.

Jacob Elordi’s Cartier Tank

Elordi’s been seen in a wide array of lovely Cartiers lately, perhaps none more compelling than the black-dial Tank he wore on SNL last weekend. A Large-size Tank Louis Cartier, it’s a beautiful, modern version of a design that’s been kicking around for decades, and has largely come to define the idea of the dress watch alongside the Patek Philippe Calatrava. Housed in a solid yellow gold 25mm case and powered by a manually wound movement, its gleaming black dial and blue cabochon crown ooze “I have arrived” vibes—which Elordi certainly has.

Originally Appeared on GQ