It’s no secret Tom Brady is an IWC guy. The football great bought his first model—a GST Automatic Alarm—back in 2002, before later acquiring a Navitimer, a Top Gun Miramar and a Portugieser. The newest IWC in Brady’s collection may be the most dazzling yet, though.
The seven-time Super Bowl champ, who announced his retirement from the NFL for the second time last week, recently wore a rare model that was released almost a decade ago to the premiere of 80 For Brady in LA. The new flick is about four older women—played by Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin—fulfilling their dream of watching Brady play in person. The film sounds entertaining enough, though we’d rather spend two hours looking at the quarterback’s Portuguese Hand-Wound Tourbillon Squelette.
Released in 2015, the limited edition was based on IWC’s Portuguese Hand-Wound Ref. 5463. The watchmaker produced just 25 examples with this fully skeletonized dial and movement. Crafted from striking 18-karat red gold, the 43 mm case showcases IWC’s caliber 98920 in all its glory, with the tourbillon on full display at 9 o’clock.
The timepiece was originally priced at around $100,000 and was exceedingly difficult to come by. No doubt time has made it more expensive and elusive still. Of course, Brady has been a global brand ambassador for IWC since 2019 and so likely has the right connections. He has also earned more than $332 million from 23 seasons in the NFL, according to Bloomberg. As such, he can certainly afford to splash out on his wrist candy. It has to compete with those Super Bowl rings, after all.
As mentioned, this is not the only IWC in Brady’s ever-expanding collection. In fact, his daily beater in 2020 was a Portugieser with a blue dial. He also has another Portugieser Perpetual Calendar that was given to him by his soon to be ex-wife Gisele Bündchen. In addition, the three-time NFL MVP has previously owned a Navitimer and Top Gun Miramar. (He sold his Big Pilot at a charity auction last May.) Brady even bought a very old IWC pocket watch from his friend John Reardon, who was the head of international watches at Christie’s before founding Collectability.
