If you’ve never seen Hot Ones you’re missing out. It is hands down the best talk show out right now. The show is a web series on Youtube created by Chris Schonberger and hosted by Sean Evans. It entails Evans interviewing celebrities while consuming progressively hot buffalo wings. It may sound immature, but the extremely spicy wings bring out a realness in those being interviewed that is rarely seen. When your mouth is on fire, you throw out the scripted canned answers you’ve been using for the other stops on the press tour. On top of that, the research team digs incredibly deep enabling Evans to ask original and insightful questions that you don’t hear on other talk shows. This allows you to see a side of your favorite celebrities that you don’t get to see often. Because it’s not a fancy late-night show, the celebrities are often casually dressed and in an outfit they picked out, not a stylist. This includes some seriously great watches. It’s always nice to see what watches the rich and famous choose to wear just because they like them and not because they’re a brand ambassador or because a stylist thought it would look great on the red carpet. Without further ado, here are the best watches seen on Hot Ones.
First up Kumal Nanjiani: a hilarious comedian and actor you may know from HBO’s Silicon Valley and soon to be in Marvel’s Eternals. The watch Kumal decided to wear to his interview is a Rose Gold Patek Phillipe Aquanaut 5167R. For a long time, the Aquanaut was just the Nautilus little brother. The “poor man’s Nautilus” if you will. But due to the limited availability and high grey market prices of the Nautilus, the Aquanaut came into its own and is an iconic sports watch all on its own. The rose gold variant seen here with a brown rubber strap is a personal favorite of mine. Ninety percent of the time you see this watch it’s in steel. I’m a sucker for rose gold, and I also love when someone wears a watch in a different metal than the one that’s most popular. This one retails for $36,970 if you can find it.
Next is from a well-known watch enthusiast, Mr. Gordon Ramsay. Chefs are well known for being into watches so this choice isn’t much of a surprise. I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty confident this is a 1680 Rolex Submariner probably from the mid to late 1970s. He’s got it on an aftermarket leather strap which always looks great on a vintage Rolex. This is a classic model among collectors, it’s also the first Submariner to include the date complication. It’s got clean classic Submariner lines and can still probably take being banged around in the kitchen. Here is a nice example just like it that you can pick up for just shy of $16k.
This one is a heavy hitter from a well-known collector. John Mayer, yes that John Mayer, is a great musician but he also has one of the most insane watch collections on the planet. He has done two separate interviews with Hodinkee talking about it, and I’m sure he’s got even more gems in the safe that he has chosen not to show to the world. The watch he rocked while lighting his mouth on fire eating buffalo wings is the Rolex Rainbow Daytona Ref. 116599 in White Gold. Initially, this watch was met with a lot of resistance, but now it’s pretty sought after. With an MSRP of $86,000, it’s exclusively for the uber-wealthy, especially when you consider it’s extremely hard to find and sells second hand for over double it’s MSRP.
These are some of my favorites, but there are a lot of great watches on Hot Ones. Oh, and the interviews are pretty great too. Check it out.
Mainplate & Bridge 