What's on Lewis Hamilton's Wrist Right Now

Lewis Hamilton doesn't need a watch sponsorship to wear interesting watches. Which is precisely why his collection matters.

While most F1 drivers are contractually shackled to TAG Heuer or Richard Mille or whatever the team's signed up with, Hamilton's been free to wear what he likes since parting ways with IWC in 2022. And what he's chosen to wear says more about where horology's heading than a dozen brand ambassador posts ever could.

The IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar, Still His Daily

Let's start with the one he keeps coming back to. Despite the partnership ending, Hamilton still regularly wears his IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar in white gold. I've spotted it in his paddock photos at least a dozen times this season. The 46.2mm case should look ridiculous on anyone, but Hamilton's got the wrist for it, and more importantly, he wears it like he forgot it was there.

This tells you something. When someone keeps wearing a watch after the cheques stop, it means something. The Big Pilot Perpetual is a £35,000 watch that's genuinely complicated, annual calendar, moonphase, proper finishing, but it doesn't scream for attention. Hamilton pairs it with hoodies and ripped jeans. That's the move of someone who actually likes watches, not someone performing wealth.

The Cartier Santos, A Proper Left Turn

Here's where it gets interesting. In the past six months, Hamilton's been photographed wearing a yellow gold Cartier Santos medium on a bracelet at least four times. Not the skeleton version everyone on Instagram's posting. The regular one. Steel and gold, classic dial, 35mm case.

This is a smart choice masquerading as a safe one. The Santos is having a moment, fair enough, but Hamilton's wearing the proportions that actually work. The medium wears like a 36mm-38mm because of those exposed screws and integrated bracelet. It's elegant without being precious. I've owned one. You can wear it to the gym or to the Met Gala, and the watch doesn't care either way.

What Hamilton's doing here is what I wish more athletes would do: he's wearing a genuinely iconic design rather than the latest limited edition designed to separate footballers from their money. The Santos has been around since 1904. It'll be around when whatever ceramic-bezel monstrosity is flavour of the month this year has been forgotten.

Why the Santos Works for Him

Hamilton's style has evolved. He's into fashion, proper fashion, not just wearing Supreme to the paddock. The Santos bridges that gap between serious horology and design-forward jewellery in a way very few watches can. It's recognisably a watch, but it's also recognisably Cartier. That square case, those screws, that railroad-track minute ring, it's graphic in the way that appeals to someone who cares about silhouette and proportion.

And let's be honest: at 35mm, it's a statement of confidence. Most blokes his age with his money are buying 42mm chronographs. Hamilton's wearing something his grandfather might've owned.

The Patek Philippe Aquanaut, Because Of Course

Spotted at the Monaco Grand Prix afterparty: a rose gold Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167R. Because when you're Lewis Hamilton and you're in Monaco and someone's handing you champagne from a magnum, you're probably not wearing your Casio.

The Aquanaut's become a bit of a meme in watch collecting. It's the watch that hedge fund analysts buy when they get their first bonus. But Hamilton's had his for years, there are photos of him wearing it back in 2019, and he clearly likes it enough to keep it in rotation.

I'll be honest: I've never quite understood the Aquanaut's appeal. It's £40,000 for a steel sports watch with a rubber strap and a date window. The Nautilus I get, that's Gérald Genta at his finest. The Aquanaut feels like Patek saw the Nautilus going for silly money on the grey market and thought, "What if we made one for younger rich people?"

But Hamilton makes it work because he's not trying to flex. He wears it with track suits. He wore it to meet with Mercedes engineers. It's a tool, not a trophy.

The Richard Mille Nobody Talks About

Right, so here's the thing about Richard Mille. Everyone assumes Hamilton's wearing them because he's mates with Rafael Nadal or Bubba Watson or whoever. And yes, he's been photographed in an RM 11-03 McLaren Automatic Flyback Chronograph, the orange one that looks like it was designed by a fourteen-year-old who just discovered carbon fibre.

But the Richard Mille he actually wears with any regularity is much more interesting: the RM 67-02 in Quartz TPT. It's the thin one, 7.8mm, and it weighs basically nothing. I had one on my wrist for about five minutes at a collector's dinner last year, and I kept forgetting it was there.

This is Richard Mille's best idea: making a watch so light and thin that it disappears. All that aerospace materials nonsense that sounds like marketing waffle? It actually matters when you're trying to make something wearable. Hamilton's worn this during training sessions. You can see it peeking out from under his sleeve in gym photos. That's the only context in which a £125,000 watch makes any kind of practical sense.

The RM Problem

My issue with Richard Mille has always been the same: they're incredible engineering exercises that look like they were styled by someone who thinks subtlety is a character flaw. But if you're going to wear one, and Hamilton clearly is, the 67-02 is the least objectionable option. It's still not cheap. It's still not subtle. But at least it's trying to solve a real problem rather than just proving you can afford a watch that costs as much as a house.

What He's Not Wearing (and Why That Matters)

Let's talk about what's not in Hamilton's collection, because omissions are revealing.

No Rolex. None. Not a single photo of him in a Submariner or a Daytona or even a Day-Date. This is wild when you consider that basically every other F1 driver on the grid owns at least one Rolex. Hamilton's clearly decided that Rolex is too obvious. Too expected. I respect this enormously.

No AP Royal Oak, either. Again: this is the default watch for athletes with money. LeBron wears one. Messi wears one. Hamilton's looked at the same watch on everyone else's wrist and said no thanks.

No independent watchmakers. No F.P. Journe, no MB&F, no Voutilainen. This surprises me a bit, because Hamilton strikes me as exactly the kind of person who'd appreciate what François-Paul Journe is doing. But maybe that's still to come. He's only 39. There's time.

The Vintage Rolex That Got Away

There's a photo from 2016, I've spent more time looking at this photo than I should admit, where Hamilton's wearing what looks like a vintage Rolex Daytona ref. 6263 with a Paul Newman dial. It's blurry. Could be a 6239. Could be a 6241. But the registers are definitely exotic, and the case is definitely 37mm-ish.

He's never been photographed wearing it since. I have theories about why, and they all involve him selling it during the 2020-2021 vintage Rolex bubble and making enough money to buy something more interesting. Good for him if he did. A Paul Newman Daytona was going for £150,000-200,000 back then. Now they're triple that. But the fact he sold it, if he sold it, suggests he's not sentimental about watches as investments. They're things he wears, not things he hoards.

What This All Means

Hamilton's collection is what you get when someone who can afford anything buys what they actually like rather than what they think they should own. It's not the biggest collection. It's not the most comprehensive. But it's coherent. There's a through-line: quality, design, wearability. No hype pieces. No limited editions bought as investments. Just watches that work for his life.

I've watched a lot of celebrity watch collections over the years, and most of them are depressing. Footballers with drawers full of iced-out Hublots. Rappers with rose gold everything. Actors wearing whatever their stylist put on them that morning. Hamilton's different. He's built a collection that suggests he's actually thought about what watches do and why they matter.

The Santos because it's iconic. The Big Pilot because it's genuinely complicated and well-made. The Aquanaut because it's sports-watch royalty. The RM 67-02 because it actually solves the problem of wearing a mechanical watch during physical activity. None of these are obvious choices. All of them make sense.

And that's the thing about Hamilton's approach to watches: it's the same as his approach to racing. He's not following the racing line everyone else is taking. He's finding his own line, and it's usually better.

What's Next

If I were betting on what Hamilton buys next, and I have been known to put money on sillier things, I'd say he goes one of two ways. Either he discovers the independents and ends up with something properly obscure like a Kari Voutilainen or a Philippe Dufour Simplicity, or he goes full vintage and starts hunting proper tropical Submariners and gilt-dial Daytonas.

My money's on vintage. Hamilton's taste has been trending towards classic design over contemporary showpieces. A 1960s Submariner ref. 5512 would fit perfectly with the Santos. It's about the same size. Similar design philosophy. And it's the kind of watch that gets better with age rather than looking dated after five years.

But honestly? I hope he keeps surprising us. The fun of watching Hamilton's watch game isn't seeing him buy the same expensive watches everyone expects. It's seeing him ignore convention and wear what makes sense to him. That's proper collecting. That's what separates enthusiasts from people who just like expensive things.

And if he happens to read this and wants to talk vintage Heuer Carreras over coffee, I'll bring my 1133B. We can compare notes.