The Best Place for Spotting Grail Watches Is Courtside at a Knicks Game

It’s gotten too easy for the New York Knicks lately. While the Atlanta Hawks may have offered a jump scare or two in round one of the NBA playoffs, the Knickerbockers are cruising through their second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers. And while other cities, particularly the Los Angeles Lakers, used to put up a competitive fight when it came to celebrity rows, Manhattan’s team is now the undisputed heavyweight champ of putting famous butts in seats. What makes them the most powerful courtside in the NBA right now? It might be the watches.

Even when the LA arena formerly known as Staples Center was kicking, this wasn’t really a fair fight. Jack Nicholson, the Lakers’ A-listiest fan, preferred a Timex Easy Reader, which is cool in a subverting-expectations kinda way but can’t exactly hold up against a special-edition Rolex Daytona. Together, recent Knicks’ game attendees Jay-Z, Timothée Chalamet, Spike Lee, and Tracy Morgan combined to make the horological equivalent of the Avengers.

Jay-Z’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Le Mans”

Jay-Z’s cache of world-beater watches is endless. After breaking out five ridiculous grails for our April/May cover story, Hov is back with another watch that would be the crown jewel in most people’s collections. The “Le Mans” Daytona is arguably the biggest release of the decade for Rolex. The most important detail on this version of the watch is those moon-looking subdials, which are actually a nod to vintage “Paul Newman” versions, named because the actor wore one (that later sold for $17.8 million at auction). Jay’s watch also has a red “100” on the bezel’s tachymeter—a scale used to measure speed—for the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours at Le Mans race. The Crown has released several versions of this watch in yellow, white, and rose gold and produced each one for only a year. Jay’s is the rose-gold version.