WATCHSPOTTING: Father’s Day special – famous dads and sons/daughters
Andrew McUtchenWhen you’re young you want to be like your dad. He’s a cool guy. He’s as strong as Atlas. Everything he does is brilliant. Whatever he wears is what you should wear. Dadjeans? Cool. Hawaiian shirts? Whatever you think, dad. A too-small gold watch on special occasions? Naturally. And then you grow up. You feel the need to strike out on your own – to find your own swag, your own path and, hopefully, a slightly better fit of jeans.
It all begs the question, what do famous sons and daughters do with their collective dads’ watch legacy? Do they slavishly follow what the old man wore, or do they strike out on their own? To celebrate Father’s Day we looked into it, and awarded each son or daughter a Legacy Rating – 10 being exactly like their dad’s, 1 being the complete opposite. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!
Steve & Chad McQueen – 10/10 Legacy Rating
Well, the legacy force doesn’t get much stronger than posing in front of a picture of your dad wearing the same watch. But the similarities between Steve and Chad run much deeper than just the wrist – Chad McQueen has competed in several types of racing from Motocross to the Baja 1000. Wikipedia reports that at age 6, he won his class in the World Mini Grand Prix. His career since then has been more checkered than chequered flag, with Chad retiring in 2006 after being seriously injured (suffering a broken lower left leg, as well as a pair of fractures to his vertebrae and multiple rib fractures) in an accident at the Daytona International Speedway while practicing for the 24 Hours of Daytona Sports Car race.
David & Romeo Beckham – 9/10 Legacy Rating
This should be prefaced by admitting that Beckham, a renowned watch lover with a collection including vintage Rolex, Breitling (obviously) and Jacob & Co. timepieces, often lets his kids (and his celebrity chef mates) wear his watches. But still, even if the watch is his dad’s, it’s a slightly more colourful look than David would usually rock himself – preferring diamond and oversized pieces from Jacob & Co. as his go-to.
Clint & Scott Eastwood – 5/10 Legacy Rating
We’ve never quite recovered from the single greatest watch fashion shoot ever that Scott did for Town & Country. It remains our light, our inspiration. In it, we were made aware of how good Scott made brands like Audemars Piguet look. But the question remained, was Scott really a watch guy? We’re part way to knowing now, with his recent ‘friend of the brand’ status announced with IWC. And we have to say, the Top Gun Miramar pictured below would have looked INSANE as a prop on his 2015 shoot with Tay Tay However, Scott has a long way to go before he ascends to Clint levels of paradoxical cool, summed up perfectly by Clint’s choice of the elegant, understated A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1, which he’s been wearing since Scott was in primary school.
Chelsea & Bill Clinton – 11/10 Legacy Rating
Like father, like daughter. If you believed the story, Detroit Pride (or manufacturing in America in general) runs deep in the Clinton family who have been known to wear Shinola as a mandatory accessory ever since 2014 when Bill visited the factory. He told Esquire he likes the Runwell model for its “elegant and informal” look. Obama favours the Runwell model too, by the way. Must be a U.S President thing.
Arnold & Patrick Schwarzenegger – 8/10 Legacy Rating
While it’s cute that Arnie and Patrick seem to be in the same watch phase at the same time in their lives – they are approximately the same age in these pictures – the Terminator went on from here to get even bigger, both in terms of his polo shirt size and his watches, ending in an enviable collection of oversized watches by luxury brands like Panerai and Audemars Piguet as well as the lighter-weight (in every sense) U-Boat and interesting ex-supplier to the Luftwaffe (along with IWC, Stowa, Wempe and A.Lange), Laco, which you can read more about here. This predilection for watches north of 44mm can’t help but be related to the girth of Arnie’s forearms (he could practically wear a dinner plate with his cannons), so the more reasonably sized Patrick may find his watch journey going in a less military direction from here.
