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Culture Of Time Pharrell Williams’ Trailblazing Watch Collection

The newly appointed menswear creative director of Louis Vuitton has always been ahead of the curve – from music to fashion to watches, and everything in between.

Pharrell Williams is so high up on the entertainment food chain – and has been so ubiquitous for so long – that it can be hard to appreciate just how much he's influenced music, fashion, and the wider zeitgeist as we recognize it today. To borrow a phrase, he is everything, everywhere, all at once.

He broke through as a music producer. The Virginia-born artist – who has often operated (and albeit at a slower pace, continues to) alongside Chad Hugo as part of the songwriting and production duo The Neptunes – created hit after hit for the likes of Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Jay-Z and Frank Ocean. One oft-cited statistic really drives home the magnitude of his work: In 2003, 43 percent of music on American radio was produced by the Neptunes.

Pharrell and Chad Hugo

Pharrell wearing is AP RO Skeleton QP with Chad Hugo at the "Neptunes Present...Clones" Album Signing in 2003 Image: Courtesy of Getty.

Pharrell wearing a Five Time Zone

Nelly and Pharrell Williams during 2004 MTV European Music Awards. 

But his impact has also been felt elsewhere.

His fashion accolades include the founding of Billionaire Boys Club with Japanese streetwear and culture savant Nigo, plus his collaboration sunglasses and Blason Collection line of jewelry for Louis Vuitton. In 2017 he even became the first male ambassador for Chanel and went on to become a "friend of the brand" for Richard Mille.

Which brings us to his watches. Pharrell is an avid collector, known for wearing Royal Oak QPs and Concepts before everyone outside of horological circles decided they wanted one. He wore and name dropped Richard Mille in lyrics before anybody really knew what it was. Historically he has also worn multiple Five Time Zones by Jacob & Co., a Chopard set entirely with baguette diamonds, and multiple G-Shocks.

As of this week, Pharrell Williams has been named creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton, arguably the world's most important luxury fashion house. For some it is a controversial move, as this cements fashion's metamorphosis into the wider entertainment category. Following the death of Virgil Abloh, this new appointment is a clear attempt to stay culturally relevant. It's also a golden opportunity to see how a watch-loving polymath incorporates timepieces into his looks both on and off the runway.

While we await his first collection, here's a look back at some of his splashiest watch moments.

Pharrell in Five Time Zone

Pharrell in his Royal Five Time Zone at the American Music Awards 2005.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars
Pharrell at Coachella

Pharrell at Coachella in 2003. Image: Courtesy of Getty.

It was the year 2003, the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chilli Peppers were headlining Coachella, social media was barely in its infancy, and high watchmaking was an extremely niche category known to very few. Pharrell took to the stage with N.E.R.D wearing a yellow gold Audemars Piguet skeleton Perpetual Calendar Royal Oak. This was the early 2000s, the beginning of the serious Offshore era but nobody in the mainstream wanted a Royal Oak, certainly not a skeletonized QP. Ahead of his time much?

This early skeletonized Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars is extremely rare; Audemars Piguet reports that only 126 examples of the ref. 25636 were ever produced in yellow gold.

Here he is pictured below in 2002 wearing an even rarer platinum version, which is one of only 34 examples that AP produced.

Pharrell wearing AP in 2002

N.E.R.D. performing at The Sprite Liquid Mix Tour 2002. Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept

Pharrell with Daft Punk at the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014 wearing an AP Carbon Concept. Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

A closeup of the Carbon Concept. 

The Royal Oak Concept collection was first introduced by Audemars Piguet in 2002. The  highly evolved octagonal form, based on the original 1972 Royal Oak was not only louder in terms of proportion and design, it also served as a testing ground for some of APs most mechanically advanced complications.

Pharrell was often spotted wearing the Carbon Tourbillon Chronograph ref. 26265FO.OO.D002CR.01 that was first released in 2008. The Royal Oak CCW1 was auctioned off last October (along with the above QPs) at Pharrell's inaugural sale for the online auction platform Joopiter.

This Royal Oak Concept is crafted from high-tech forged carbon with a bezel, crown, and chronograph pushers made of black ceramic. The 384-part caliber incorporates a tourbillon, chronograph and twin-barrel system that enables an approximate 10-day power reserve. The linear chronograph minute counter breaks with the traditional chronograph register, instead presenting an open-worked bridge with double vertical scale.

Perhaps a past favorite of Pharrell's when performing due to its sheer lightness, the watch weighs a mere 90 grams.

Jacob & Co. Five Time Zone
Pharrell and Jacob

Pharrell Williams with Jacob Arabo. Image: Courtesy of Jacob & Co.

Royal Five Time Zone

Royal Five Time Zone 

Diamond-Set Five Time Zone

Diamond-set Five Time Zone

Pharrell (like Jay-Z, David Beckham and many others) was a Jacob Arabo disciple. Along with Nigo, the trio developed a multicolored gem-set aesthetic that was radically different to anything around at the time. Their jewelry paved the way for a lot of the jewelry we see in hip-hop today.

In addition to the fancy-colored diamond pendants custom created for him, Pharrell also wore countless versions of Jacob's Five Time Zone watch, including a fully baguette-set Royal Five Time Zone, which was also auctioned off in his recent Joopiter sale. And he's been spotted wearing a full ruby-set Four Time Zone Tourbillon and a diamond-set Standard.

Pharrell wearing a Five Time Zone

Pharrell in the early aughts wearing his Jacob & Co. Five Time Zone. Image: Courtesy of Jacob & Co. 

Pharrell wearing Four Time Zone

Pharrell in the Ruby Four Time Zone Tourbillon. Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

Pharrell in GQ 2005

Pharrell wearing the Jacob Standard in GQ (2006). Image: Courtesy of Jacob & Co. 

Jacob and Co Standard

The Standard by Jacob & Co.

Gem-set Casio G-Shock × Bape DW-6900 (Jacob & Co.)

The G-Shock had a surge in popularity amongst celebrities in the 2000s – Nigo and Pharrell's influence in bringing Japanese streetwear to America most definitely played a part in the watch's success. But Pharrell took it one step further by asking Jacob to bust down his Bape Collaboration DW-6900 in white gold and diamonds. It was an eccentric twist added to a watch known for its robust utilitarianism. This watch likely inspired Kid Cudi who wore a BAPE x Ben Baller bustdown G-SHOCK DW-6900 set with diamonds and pink sapphires to the 2021 Met Gala.

Pharrell wearing a gem-set G-Shock

Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

A Very Large Richard Mille Collection
Pharrell with Khaled

Pharrell (pictured with DJ Khaled) wearing the RM031. Image: Courtesy of Getty.  

Pharrell in the RM 056 Felipe Massa

Pharrell at the 2017 Oscars in the Richard Mille RM 056 Felipe Massa. Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

The friendship between Pharrell and Richard Mille goes back to 2006 when Pharrell name-dropped the brand in his single "Can I Have It Like That" featuring Gwen Stefani. Now more formally affiliated with RM, Pharrell is often spotted wearing new releases such as my personal favorite (really, I can't stop talking about it) the RM88 Smiley.

Pharrell's collection also has a good sprinkling of RM deep cuts. In 2017 Pharell wore a RM-056 Massa (LE of 5) which would have been two iterations old by that time (RM056-01 and RM056-02 came after). That same year he was also spotted wearing an RM 031 (LE of 10), which again, came out in 2012. By 2017 it was pretty standard for a celeb of his caliber to be sporting the brand but Pharrell was buying and wearing older limited edition Richard Mille pieces, in the same way he'd bought and worn older APs.

Pharrell has, rather unsurprisingly, spearheaded the celebrity RM movement. First spotted publicly wearing one (RM 011 Lotus F1 Team Romain Grosjean) in 2014, he built such a strong a relationship with the brand that in 2019 he co-created his own Richard Mille watch, the RM 52-05 Pharrell Williams. Let's not forget that Pharrell was born in the 1970s, during the genesis of Star Wars and Kraftwerk. The same mixture of influences (science, engineering, art, visual language) that led to his spacey, avant-garde beats makes Pharrell's relationship with RM and watches in general interesting.

Pharrell wearing Rm 70-01

Pharrell wearing the RM 701-01 Alain Proust at the Chanel Haute Couture Fall Winter 2018/2019 show. His wife Helen Lasichanh is also an RM fan. Image: Courtesy of Getty. 

Pharrell performing with Shay

Pharrell performing with N.E.R.D in 2018 wearing his RM 70-01 Alain Prost.

Richard Mille RM 88 Smiley

Richard Mille RM 056 Felipe Mass

Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Skull Nano Céramique

Richard Mille RM 70-01 Alain Prost

Richard Mille RM 031

Richard Mille RM 52-05 Pharrell Williams

So What’s Next?

In a recent video of Pharrell in the runup to his Joopiter auction, he explained that the sale was about paving the way for a fresh start. My coworker Rich Fordon cleverly pointed out that Pharrell has a bit of a pattern when it comes to watches buying and wearing: "He seems to get a few new watches every five-ish years and wears them for five-ish years, and then moves on. There's a kind of cycle: the two AP QPs from 2002 to 2006, G-Shock from 2006 to 2010, AP Concepts from 2010 to 2014"

What will we see on his arm from 2023 to 2028? Perhaps some LV watches? No matter what, from this new perch, he's poised to have even more influence over what collectors – especially young collectors – buy and wear and think is cool. He's also in position to further diversify collecting and designing culture. And to deliver a greater representation of Black talent across the luxury space, reflecting the wealth and breadth of Black identities and experiences. That he's doing all of this for fashion already seems like a given. My hope is that he'll have the same effect on the watch world.

Pharrell with Nigo in a Royal Five Time Zone

Pharrell with Nigo in 2006 wearing his Royal Five Time Zone.