The Story Behind the Rolex GMT Flooding Every Watch Group Chat

Wind Vintage has had plenty of remarkable and important timepieces flow through its digital doors over the years.

Eric Wind — the dealer and watch authority behind the Palm Beach-based outfit and a longtime friend of Gear Patrol — has an almost unmatched eye for sourcing historically significant pieces.

But even by those standards, the latest addition to the Wind Vintage inventory is a genuine shock to the system. This is a watch that will stop music fans and horological gawkers dead in their tracks.

It’s also the kind of listing destined to do laps through watch forums, Discord servers and text chains — one that shows up between memes and vacation pics with a “you seeing this?” attached.

Welcome to Heat Check: A guide to the trends and products taking the internet by a storm. Discover more here.

Hotline bling

Wind Vintage

The watch in question is a Rolex GMT-Master II reference 116758SANR — a yellow gold, bedazzled, off-catalog version of the famed travel watch introduced circa 2006.

As you’d imagine, it was produced in extremely limited numbers due to the intensive, zero-defect gem-setting process used for each one. In fact, according to Wind Vintage, the piece is rarer still than the much-talked-about “Rainbow” Daytona reference 116595RBOW.

And as with that other famous gem-set version of a modern Rolex sports watch, the details of this GMT’s bezel are the definition of bling.

It’s inlaid with 36 baguette diamonds and 12 black sapphires — one of which is cut in the shape of a triangle — with the sapphires doubling as hour markers to help read a third time zone.

Wind Vintage

The lugs and crown guards are also adorned with diamonds, making this among the most extravagant production references Rolex has ever created.

What sets this particular example apart from every other 116758SANR on the market, however, is its provenance.

Amazon

This is the exact watch Drake wore on the cover of Take Care.

It was his second studio album, released in 2011, and is widely regarded as one of the most significant rap records of the decade. And that’s not just subjective opinion.

Take Care spent 400 weeks on the Billboard 200, achieved RIAA Diamond certification with over 10 million copies sold, and claimed the Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.

Drake was photographed wearing this piece by Hyghly Alleyne and Lamar Taylor at Joso’s Restaurant in Toronto, a shoot that produced the now-iconic cover image. The watch can also be spotted in the music video for “Marvin’s Room.”

Wind Vintage

Surprisingly, though, this watch apparently wasn’t part of Drake’s own collection. Instead, according to the listing, the watch was originally purchased in 2011 by a colleague of Drake’s from his early career years.

The caseback also bears an engraving of the OVO Owl logo — the symbol of Drake’s October’s Very Own label.

Availability and pricing

Wind Vintage

Wind Vintage is asking $500,000 for the piece, and the sale comes with an unusually compelling package.

Beyond the watch itself — which is offered unpolished and in full set with original box and papers — the lot includes a suite of OVO memorabilia: the Owl statue featured on the Take Care album cover, clothing and backstage passes.

Wind Vintage

For collectors drawn to timepieces with prestinely documented cultural provenance, it is hard to think of a package quite like this one.

Of course, for the vast majority of watch enthusiasts, this one lives squarely in the realm of fantasy — and that’s perfectly fine.

Half the fun of a piece like this comes from simply knowing it exists: a $500,000 yellow gold Rolex buried in sapphires and diamonds, with an owl engraved on the back and a Grammy-winning album cover to its name.

You don’t need to be in the market to appreciate that someone, somewhere, is going to own one of the most gloriously unsubtle watches ever made — and that it came with a story this good.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add Gear Patrol as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

Related Topics