The age-defying Tom Cruise has a watch collection every bit as timeless as himself. Over the course of the promo run for Top Gun: Maverick he’s stayed true to his make-believe fighter pilot credentials with a series of masculine and robust tool watches such as a steel Rolex Datejust, a somewhat louder Breitling Chronomat (which would not have been out of place in the first Top Gun), and this week, a classic Rolex GMT with red and blue Pepsi dial, but, get this – in white gold, instead of steel. It’s an unusual remix of the aviation classic which suits a man who probably has every watch he wants and now can branch out into something different.
The original GMT was a game changer for Rolex. Released in 1955 it became the official timepiece of Pan Am pilots who needed a watch that could tell them what time zone such was the immense speed of the new Boeing 367-80 jets they were flying. Rolex’s solution was to add a hand which made one revolution every 24 hours with a blue and red bezel bearing the numbers 1-24 which rotated around the watch face. Not only was this new feature eye-catching enough to check the timezone at a glance, it was also rather stylish.
Alongside a pair of Ray Bans the GMT swiftly became a symbol of a new generation of globetrotting rich people known as the ‘jet set’. Watch 2002's Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a con man pretending to be a Pan Am pilot, to get a sense of the kind of mid-century glamour the GMT evokes.
There are a number of highly luxurious finishes on Tom Cruise’s white gold remix, not least of which is solid 18k white gold whereas the original was in stainless steel. Let’s not forget that this was originally a ‘tool watch’ as indispensable to a pilot as a slide rule or compass. Nevertheless, for the white gold version, the original anodized aluminium bezel with bakelite numbers has been replaced with the somewhat harder and more luxurious substance called ‘Cerachrom’ a type of ceramic, while the numbers have been coated with platinum. All of which gives the watch a more luxurious and substantial feel than the original, which, of course, is in keeping with the fact that you’ve strapped on a solid chunk of 18K white gold onto your wrist. Apart from that, it’s pretty much the same watch, only slightly nicer and definitely a strong addition to Cruise's collection.
A bit like the man himself, the GMT has remained the same but gotten a little more distinguished and fancier as time goes by.