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Photographs: Getty Images, Omega; Collage: Gabe Conte
While Omega and Swatch’s MoonSwatch has mostly courted collectors at the beginning of their journey, the affordable spinoff of the Swiss luxury brand’s NASA-qualified Speedmaster has proven just as irresistible to deep-pocketed celebrity clientele, too. Ed Sheeran, former soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Daniel Craig have all rocked versions of the MoonSwatch. The collaborative work between Omega and Swatch isn’t just an agreeably priced knockoff but a watch so thoroughly embedded in the culture now that for some it’s becoming a regular piece in the rotation alongside high-flying models from Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe. The latest to embrace this Highest 2 Lowest philosophy is director Spike Lee, who rocked a “Mission on Earth Lava” while on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
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The fiery orange watch was a perfect fit for Lee who is rarely without some sort of sartorial hat tip to his beloved New York Knicks. But in paying homage in the general direction of Madison Square Garden this week, the beloved director looked toward his wrist with the “Lava” version of the Speedmaster. The watch isn’t just a visual standout, but a nod toward a beloved vintage version of the Speedmaster known as the “Ultraman.”
The Mission on Earth Lava is not a subtle piece, which is what makes it so charming. The watch’s 42-mm Hazmat-orange case is paired to a black dial riddled with matching orange accents throughout the handset, hour markers, and typography. Inspired by the Speedmaster “Ultraman” from 1968—a favorite of Speedy collectors—as well as the historic Alaska II and Alaska III Project watches, the dial is joined by other vintage-inspired nods. The box-shaped biosourced crystal is etched with an “S” in the manner of older Hippocampus logo-etched crystals, while the tachymeter bezel has the Moonwatch’s classic dot-over-90 index.
Surely, Swatch and Omega weren’t imagining this particular cultural moment when designing this admittedly oddball MoonSwatch—but there’s no denying the extra zeitgeist points awarded when someone as stylish and quintessentially “New York” as Spike Lee wears your watch on national television. It’s also proof that the MoonSwatch as a cultural phenomenon has far from subsided, with the brand continuing to drop all manner of deep watch-guy-esque references and celebrities wearing them while out and about. (Interestingly, Hunter Biden just wore the Lava during his long interview with Channel 5.) Despite well over a million MoonSwatches rolling off the Swatch production line since 2022, they continue to sell like hot cakes. The model has also helped bring new folks into the horological fold and give Millennials of a certain age Beanie Baby-related PTSD.
Now, all this affordable-watch stuff isn’t to say that Spike isn’t a serious student of high-end horology. See the director’s Cool Hand Brooklyn by Les Artisans De Genève, a customized ref. 116520 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. Born as a white-dialed chronograph with a steel bezel, it was fully dressed by a Genevan customization business in full-on Knicks livery: With blue bezel and sunburst dial and plenty of orange accents in the chronograph totalizers and typography, it’s one cool-looking Daytona. (Even if an unsanctioned one that no doubt makes someone in a corner office at Rolex HQ wince.)
And that’s not all: The Do The Right Thing director also has plenty of stock Daytonas, Jaeger-LeCoultre Reversos, and other Rollies in his rotation. Despite all that firepower, however, it’s the Knicks-themed pieces that feel truly right at home in the director’s rotation. That now includes a $270 plastic-cased watch that anybody can collect.
A version of this story originally appeared on GQ US.