A quick deep dive into the tech billionaire’s mysterious watch collection

Elon Musk is a man with seemingly modest tastes – unless you count buying social media platforms (TBC) and building rockets. But in terms of personal style, the Tesla founder tends to follow the Silicon Valley doyen template of unfussy suits and slept in-looking hoodies.

But what about watches? Surely a man worth $265 billion – enough to fire yourself into orbit or build a Modern House mansion on the moon – treats himself to a little wrist candy. A Rolex Daytona, maybe. An Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. A stainless steel Patek Philippe Nautilus. Perhaps even a bonkers Jacob and Co number.

It turns out that Elon Musk’s watch collection contains none of the above. While he could easily afford to wear, and then discard, a new Pepsi GMT II every day of his life like Fat Joe does with trainers on that episode Cribs, Elon Musk’s horological tastes are characteristically minimal and a touch mysterious.

Elon Musk’s watch collection.

While Elon might not be a watch guy, he is a guy with a couple of stand out watches. Back in the nascent Tesla days Musk was spied wearing an Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra, a clean, dressy interpretation of the iconic dive watch with a 41mm face and a stainless steel bracelet that can survive 150m beneath the sea (unconfirmed whether it can handle Mars).

For Musk’s first SpaceX mission in 2010, which ended up being ruined by bad weather (rude), astronaut Bob Behnken continued the Omega connection, wearing the futuristic X-33, a watch designed specifically for intergalactic travel. First launched in 1998, it was designed with General Tom Stafford, a former NASA Apollo X pilot. It features a chunky bezel, a velcro strap that can be fastened around a space suit and, most importantly, a MET, shorthand for ‘Mission Elapsed Time’, which tracks the amount of time that has passed from when the mission begins, essential when you can’t rely on knowing what time of day or night it is in deep space. Musk surely also has one stuck in a drawer somewhere, seeing as he funded most of the thing.

Omega connection aside, the watch that has spent the most time on Musk’s wrist is a TAG Heuer with a personal connection. Launched in 2012 to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the model being the first watch to be worn in space by John Glenn in 1962, the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX Chronograph is co-branded with a depiction of a SpaceX rocket on the face and caseback and is limited to 2012 editions. A chrono with easily-legible numbers, a clean white face and a leather strap, it toes the line nicely between a functional space watch and an elegant thread of ‘classic’ watch design.

When it comes to his personal ‘edit’ of watches, it turns out Elon does have some taste after all.