David Beckham Got a One-of-One Tudor Watch for His 50th Birthday

It pays to be David Beckham in more ways than one. In addition to being one of the greatest footballers of all time, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF is also a brand ambassador for one of the world’s finest watch companies. With the opportunity to wear and own virtually every cool new Tudor timepiece before it hits the shelves, he has every watch nerd’s dream gig.

And the dream gig comes with more than just access to cool new product: For his 50th birthday, Tudor seems to have gifted Becks a pièce unique—a special one-of-one watch that can’t be found anywhere else. As first reported by Adrian Barker of Bark & Jack, it’s a stealthy, unsigned Black Bay Chrono covered in diamonds and stripped of all dial text except the Tudor wordmark. Housed in steel, it presumably measures 41mm like its catalog siblings and features many of the model’s usual hallmarks, such as screw-down pushers and crown, a sapphire crystal, and the Tudor Manufacture Calibre MT5813 automatic movement.

That’s where the similarities end, however. Instead of being fitted with a tachymeter bezel insert and a panda or reverse-panda dial, Beckham’s watch is set with dual rows of round diamonds throughout the bezel and lugs, while the five-link steel bracelet features rectangular-cut stones within the central links. The black lacquer dial is largely sterile save for a dual-register chronograph display in white, diamond-set hour indices, and the Black Bay Chrono’s typical date window at 6 o’clock. (Hodinkee reports that the “2” within the date window has two birthday candles in celebration of Beckham’s May 2 birthday—a cool little Easter egg.) The brand’s famous “snowflake” hands have also been retained.

While Tudor can laser-etch unique casebacks in-house at its Swiss manufacture and is known to create specially signed dials in small batches for certain clients—British military units and Ed Sheeran among them—pièce unique watches are an entirely different animal. Given the time and expense necessary to craft a completely unique dial or a gem-set case, for example, these watches are generally saved for a brand’s very top clients—or, in this case, a top brand ambassador. They’re the sort of thing that Patek might make for someone like Eric Clapton or John Mayer, or that Vacheron might fashion for the 21st-century equivalent of a Rockefeller or a Carnegie.

As special as it is for someone like Beckham to rock a watch that the rest of us mere mortals can buy from an authorized dealer, it’s that much cooler to see him wear a special piece made just for him. (He’s earned it!) This is the sort of fare that draws people into the collecting hobby in the first place—left-of-center stuff that begs a closer look, that’s just a little bit different than the catalog models. And though you may not be on Tudor’s gifting list for diamond-studded Black Bay Chronos, there’s nothing to stop you from snagging a standard version and having it engraved, lending it a personalized touch that differentiates it from everyone else’s watches.