Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Sean John Combs Puff Daddy spotted wearing Bovet Fleurier

At the 2013 Grammy Awards, Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs arrived with something far beyond the usual rapper's Rolex or AP on his wrist: a Bovet Fleurier Amadeo 7-Day Skeleton Tourbillon in 18k red gold, one of only 50 examples ever made. The sighting, captured in a candid shot with Combs resting his hand to his chin, revealed the watch's unmistakable ornate skeletonised dial and the distinctive oval convertible lugs that are the Amadeo system's calling card.

The Amadeo 7-Day Skeleton Tourbillon represented a watershed moment for Bovet Fleurier when it debuted. It was the manufacture's inaugural fully skeletonised tourbillon movement, hand-engraved with baroque scrollwork and fitted with a flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock. The manually wound calibre delivers a 7-day power reserve — a remarkable autonomy for a movement of this complexity — and features blued steel hands and screws set against the open-worked rose-gold bridges. The double-faced architecture allows appreciation of the movement from both sides. At 45mm in diameter, the case is substantial but the Amadeo's conversion mechanism justifies every millimetre: twin sapphire-set pushers flanking the crown release the case from its lugs, transforming the wristwatch into a pocket watch or, with a dedicated stand, a travel clock in seconds.

Among serious collectors, the Amadeo skeleton tourbillon occupies a niche that few pieces can claim: genuine manufacture complexity, a strictly limited production of 50 references, and a mechanical party trick that never loses its appeal. Bovet's engraving atelier in Fleurier produces decoration of a standard rarely seen outside of Geneva's grandes maisons, and the hand-finished quality of this specific reference places it in the same conversation as independent masters like F.P. Journe or Voutilainen.

Combs has long demonstrated a preference for watches that signal connoisseurship rather than mere expenditure — this choice in 2013 was notably ahead of the wider hip-hop community's discovery of independent Swiss haute horlogerie. At $332,000 list price, it ranked among the most expensive timepieces worn publicly by any artist at that year's ceremony.

On the secondary market, examples of this 50-piece limited edition rarely surface, and when they do, they command strong premiums above original retail given the combination of rarity, complication depth, and provenance. Any example traceable to a known collector like Combs would attract additional attention at auction.