Country megastar Luke Bryan’s social media is a horological thirst trap

D.C. Hannay

Country megastar Luke Bryan has a frankly astounding watch collection, but you wouldn’t know it going by how little he’s spoken about the subject. Yet, if you pay attention to his Instagram feed, it seems he’s wearing something new in just about every post. And why shouldn’t he? Sales-wise, those homespun ditties are no joke: he’s not only one of country’s best-selling artists, he’s one of the biggest-selling acts in the world of any musical genre with over 75 million albums sold since he was signed to Capitol Nashville in 2007. Add in a pickup-truckload of awards, sold-out concert tours, and his diverse extracurricular activities (including his Nashville mega-club/restaurant and his gig as an American Idol judge), and it’s no wonder he has some spare pocket change to feed his habit.

I first noticed Luke’s wrist candy while channel-surfing and landing on one of his Idol appearances. Looking back, it’s clear that Bryan loves him a whole lotta AP. Here he is wearing a gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak chrono, this one with the gorgeous blue tapisserie dial. But that’s just the beginning.

Here’s Luke kickin’ back on the farm with the Royal Oak Offshore, this one with the super-cool olive green dial and matching rubber strap. Just a little Country Casual, NBD. And going by other watch spots in the wild, it appears that his Royal Oak bench is pretty deep.

Seems that Bryan is a pretty big fan of The Crown, too. He’s been spotted with a yellow gold Sub, the hard-to-get platinum Daytona in the ice blue dial/brown Cerachrom bezel combo, and the white gold Pepsi GMT-Master II.

It’s not all precious metal Rollies, either. Luke’s wearing a Rolex insider’s choice here, the stainless-steel Milgauss tool watch, famous for its resistance to magnetic fields. Maybe his natural charm was throwing off the accuracy of some of his other watches. Solid roster so far, but we’re just getting warmed up. Some other pieces in Bryan’s staggering collection include references from Cartier, Breitling, Patek Philippe, Hublot, IWC, Chopard, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin. From here, things really go off the rails.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the haute horlogerie zone. Here’s Bryan wearing the Breguet rose gold Tradition 7047, a statement piece that says: “things have gotten very serious”.

This ode to fine watchmaking features a handwound tourbillon movement, and is regulated by a chain and fusée drive, designed to provide constant torque to the escapement. Apart from being a striking timepiece, it’s a declaration that you’ve arrived as a collector.

Finally, it appears that Luke has been seduced by the siren call of the flex that is Richard Mille. And he has gone hard into it, with some wild Milles in the arsenal, including this one, the RM 022 Tourbillon Aerodyne Dual Time Black Carbon Limited Edition. This beast is built from titanium aluminide alloy and carbon composite, construction more often found in Formula 1 and aircraft builds.

He’s got several RMs, believe it or not, considering retail prices on these hype pieces regularly climb above seven figures. This one is the rose gold RM 63-01 Dizzy Hands, which has a very cool pusher-actuated trick up its sleeve that sends the hands clockwise, while the hour-marked sapphire crystal rotates counterclockwise, at a different speed. Visually disorienting, to say the least, hence the name. And Luke has at least two other RM’s in the collection. I think it’s safe to say that country crooning more than pays the bills, given the state of Bryan’s collection, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.