Dwayne Johnson Wears the Ultimate Action-Hero Watch

Welcome to Watches of the Week, where we’ll track the rarest, wildest, and most covetable watches spotted on celebrities.

Hollywood’s beefiest action stars are known for a few things: bludgeoning hordes of bad guys with nothing but their huge muscles, walking away slowly from explosions, and wearing watches from Panerai. In fact, the Italian watch brand owes much of its success to action stars. Before Sylvester Stallone moseyed into a Panerai boutique while filming 1996’s Daylight, the watches were almost completely unknown. The longtime supplier of the Italian Navy had only started selling watches to civilians just a few years earlier, in 1993. After his initial introduction to the pieces, Stallone started passing them out like party favors to his famous and equally swole pals like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their appeal as an action-hero watch is undeniable: for starters, they’re massive—all the better to strap on a beefy arm. Since Stallone introduced them to the rest of the world, Panerai watches have hung around Hollywood. So of course Dwayne Johnson is extremely familiar with Panerai: he’s worn the brand’s watches in Fast Five and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Now, he has a couple in his personal collection. Also this week, big horological energy at the NBA Draft.

Dwayne Johnson’s Panerai Luminor Marina

Johnson is wearing Panerai’s most iconic model, the PAM1312. He has a few from the brand—including one in rose gold—but this is the ultimate classic, a direct descendent of the one Stallone bought all those years ago.

Cade Cunningham’s Cartier Santos

Welcome to the 2021 NBA draft portion of Watches of the Week. Number-one pick Cade Cunningham, who went to the Detroit Pistons, has drawn comparisons to Luka Doncic, but watch-wise, he shows shades of… Knicks sophomore Obi Toppin. (Sorry, Pistons fans.) Like Cunningham, Toppin also wore a customized, flashy Cartier Santos to last year’s draft. Cartier made the first men’s wristwatch, so it’s a nice fit on the first overall pick.

Scottie Barnes’s Hublot Classic Fusion

New Toronto Raptor Barnes has the wrist of a champion—recent Finals winner Khris Middleton, specifically. Middleton wore the same watch, the Hublot Classic Fusion, multiple times during the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship run. Barnes was one of the only players at the draft who didn’t wear an iced-out classic watch. Watch enthusiasts everywhere are thrilled about this pick.

ASAP Ferg’s Rolex Day-Date

Ferg wears two watches regularly: a Jacob & Co. Five Time Zone and this Rolex Day-Date. In a video with GQ, he explained that this watch is the one he wears when he’s on some “grown-man shit.” The Day-Date is built exactly for that purpose. Ferg’s Day-Date isn’t bust down, iced out, blacked out, or customized in any way. Ferg calls it his “plain-Jane Rolex Day-Date.” Exactly how it should be.

Kei Nishikori’s G-Shock CasiOak Crystal Jellyfish

Taking the crown for the best named watch this week? Nishikori’s Crystal Jellyfish! Can’t beat that. This is a G-Shock with luxury touches: all the hour markers have been precisely hand-painted. The watch’s band and case are translucent—like its namesake—and maintains its aquatic theme throughout. The speckled multi-colored dial is supposed to mirror phytoplankton, a popular snack for fish.