Jay-Z Used These $40,000 Rolex Watches as Party Invites

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Once upon a time, if you wanted to invite someone to an event, you may have uncorked your well of ink and calligraphed yourself an invite that foretold potential guests of the elegant soirée on the docket. That practice has shifted over the years thanks to things like Facebook Events and Evites with lasers shooting across them. Thankfully, the art of the invitation isn’t lost on Jay-Z, who held his Shawn Carter Foundation Gala last weekend. VIP invitations arrived in the form of a package containing a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne and a rose-gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona with a chocolate dial. The purchase of a watch is usually an intimate and private practice: the process of steeling yourself for a multi-thousand-dollar purchase and finding just the right watch that not only will be worthy of its price tag but might one day belong to your children and your children’s children. All this becomes part of the watch’s story and provenance. But you know what’s way cooler than some long boring story about finding the perfect watch? Getting one as an invite to Jay-Z’s party. Also this week, Romeo Beckham’s $57,000 starter watch and Anthony Davis’s totally unavailable Royal Oak.

Jay-Z’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

Simply put: Jay did not have to go this hard [sobbing emoji, sobbing emoji]. Many invitees likely would have been thrilled to receive a lesser watch by way of an invite. If Jay-Z sent me a Swatch, I would insist on being buried with it. But Hov spared no expense, acquiring a veritable fleet of very desirable Rolex Daytonas. The sticker price? $40,000. “Hov is on another level with the invite game,” Swizz Beatz wrote over a picture of the watch on Instagram. Now, by law, Evite must shutter its business.

Romeo Beckham’s Richard Mille RM-005

Incontrovertible proof that teenaged children—no matter who their dad is, even if it’s David freaking Beckham—will run in the opposite direction of whatever their father thinks is cool. Beckham senior is a Tudor man, leaning towards simple, classic pieces imbued with the grit of Rolex’s younger-brother brand. Naturally, then, Beckham junior is after the opposite: watches that are sleek, so modern that they may as well be from the future, and highly unorthodox. Naturally, he is after Richard Mille. He’s wearing the brand’s RM-005, which originally came out in 2004 with a $57,000 price tag. That sounds like a lot but this is actually one of Richard Mille’s cheapest watches—a starter piece for the super-rich, if you will.

Elton John’s Rolex Day Date

Let’s remember a legend—and no, sorry, Elton, I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about the Rolex Day Date. It’s the first watch to ever have the full date written out, and the one beloved by figures like Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (earning the watch the nickname “The President”), and, well, Elton John. John’s comes with a very cool icy blue dial. Elton John 2020!

Anthony Davis’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon

This watch is nowhere to be found on Audemars Piguet’s website, but it was to be found on Anthony Davis’s wrist this Saturday night in Los Angeles. The extra-thin standard Royal Oak is already one of the most in-demand watches on the planet, with an annual production that can be counted on two hands. Davis’s is factory-set with rubies and is equipped with the maybe-superfluous but who-cares-because-it’s-so-pretty tourbillon complication. It is made in God-only-knows quantities.

Russell Westbrook’s Richard Mille RM-011 ”Felipe Massa” 10th-Anniversary edition

On certain nights, Russell Westbrook is welcomed into the Rockets’ Toyota Center by a DJ and red carpet. He is delivering ‘fits worthy of the hoopla, thanks in part to some extraordinary watches. He recently wore a Richard Mille RM-011 made in honor of the Brazilian racer Felipe Massa. Westbrook’s special-edition was released to celebrate the 10th year of Richard Mille and Massa working together and comes with a colorful yellow and blue dial.

Kristen Stewart’s Casio LA11WB-1

There is mounting evidence that spending any more than $20 on a watch is a fool’s errand. Two weeks ago, this column covered Tyler the Creator and his $11 Casio MQ24-9B. And this week, on the press tour for Charlie’s Angels that hopefully never ends, Kristen Stewart wore some Very Chill staples: jeans, Nike Cortez sneakers, and a Casio LA11WB-1. The Casio costs $20, comes in a cool octagon shape, and instead of a bezel ostentatiously set with diamonds, there is simply a blue plastic tube running around the face of the watch. Who needs sapphires when you are literally the coolest person on the planet?

Originally Appeared on GQ