Tim Allen — watch collection

About Tim Allen’s watch collection

Tim Allen is an American actor, comedian, and voice artist best known for his role as Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor on the long-running ABC sitcom Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999 and earned him a Golden Globe Award. He reached a new generation of fans as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise, one of the most commercially successful animated series in cinema history. On screen, he starred in The Santa Clause trilogy and Last Man Standing, the latter running for nine seasons on two different networks. Off camera, he is a known car enthusiast with a substantial garage of classic and performance vehicles, a passion that speaks to a collector's mindset that extends well beyond automobiles.

When it comes to watches, the Tim Allen watch collection leans toward the upper end of the Rolex catalogue. Allen has been photographed wearing the Rolex GMT-Master II reference 116718LN, the full 18k yellow gold version of Rolex's dual-timezone sports watch. Introduced at Baselworld 2008, the 116718LN pairs a 40mm yellow gold Oyster case with Rolex's Cerachrom ceramic bezel insert in black — a material choice that resists fading and scratching far better than the aluminium inserts it replaced. The result is a watch that sits in a different price bracket from the steel GMT-Master II variants, both in terms of retail cost and on the secondary market.

Choosing the all-gold GMT-Master II rather than a more understated steel or two-tone reference says something concrete about Allen's approach to collecting. It is not a subtle watch. The 116718LN is heavy on the wrist and unmistakable in person, which tracks for someone who has spent decades in the public eye. Whether Allen owns additional pieces that have not yet surfaced in photographs remains to be seen, but on the evidence available, his taste runs toward Rolex's more precious-metal offerings rather than the brand's workhorse tool-watch side.