Nicolas Cage Wears His Very Rare Holy Grail Rolex

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

Nicolas Cage is constantly shrinking the distance between himself and the characters he plays in movies. He once told the New York Times that he was on a literal grail quest, almost exactly like his character in National Treasure. He is playing (an exaggerated version of) himself in the upcoming movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. On and off-screen Cage have another thing in common: They love Rolex watches. In 1992’s Honeymoon in Vegas, Cage seems so fond of the brand that he wears three Rolex watches at once (what appears to be a Submariner and Day-Date on one hand, and a Datejust on the other).

Cage’s characters also have a penchant for using Rolex watches to get out of a jam. In ‘95’s Leaving Las Vegas—which is not, believe it or not, the sequel to Honeymoon in Vegas—Cage enters a pawn shop and sells his Rolex Daytona for $500. Woo, buddy, that was a mistake: Rolex Daytonas are currently one of the most sought-after models among collectors, often fetching tens of thousands of dollars at auction. And in National Treasure, Cage uses a Rolex Submariner as a deposit in order to borrow a $100 bill from a cashier. “Here. I have this diver’s watch,” he says in the movie. “It’s called a Submariner. I dive with this, it’s actually quite valuable.”

Luckily, there’s at least one Rolex Cage held onto over the years: this awesome 1950s-era Rolex Moonphase reference 6062. The watch is known as a “Stelline”—or “little star” in Italian—because of the star-shaped hour markers on the watch. The 6062 was only produced for three years, between 1950 and 1953, and rarest of all is the pink-gold version that Cage owns. Only 50 or so were made and of those barely more than a dozen have ever appeared in public, according to Christie’s. Rumor has it that Cage purchased the exact watch pictured above at a 2009 Christie’s auction for 597,000 Swiss Francs (roughly $640,000 by today’s conversion rates).

Also this week, Chris Paul’s thumb fracture isn’t preventing him from wearing his own fine Rolex, and Samuel L. Jackson continues his commitment to Panerai.

Chris Paul is wearing what’s known among collectors as the John Mayer Daytona. The watch got its name after its value shot up after Mayer wore the watch on an episode of Hodinkee’s Talking Watches. When this reference first came out in 2016, it didn’t vanish from boutiques like nearly every other Daytona in existence. But once the Mayer effect took hold, the watch doubled in value—going from $34,650 at retail to more than $70,000 at secondary retailers. Post-Mayer, Jonah Hill bought this watch and it appears Chris Paul did, too. There’s a reason we call Mayer the world’s most influential watch collector.

Like Cage, Samuel L. Jackson’s love for Panerai transcends his acting roles. Jackson had a Panerai on his wrist in the 2003 movie S.W.A.T., and has worn the brand on several occasions since. In addition to this Luminor Montecarlo 2000, he also owns the Luminor 1950 Tuttonero. This Luminor Montecarlo was made to commemorate the 2000 Laureus Regatta, a sailing competition in Monaco. Only 200 were made.

Omega rolled out a fleet of new watches last week, including a couple new versions of its Omega Speedmaster. However, the sleeper hit of the new releases might be the suite of Aqua Terra watches with colorful dials. The rollout of this release is reminiscent of Rolex’s 2020 novelties. That collection featured a new version of the brand’s flagship Submariner but it was the rainbow of Oyster Perpetuals that collectors like LeBron James, Bryan Cranston, Roger Federer, and Chris Paul gobbled up, and already we’re seeing these new Omega watches out in the wild. Garfield didn’t go with one of the new Speedmasters, instead opting for the Aqua Terra 38 millimeter in saffron. He even matched the watch to the suit.

McPhee is already familiar with The Power of the Dog, but it appears he is also now acquainted with the power of the Cartier Tank. The watch is a guaranteed red-carpet killer: Here, McPhee is wearing the recently released Tank from the house’s (relatively) affordable Must line.