From moon landings to movie sets, the watches that earned their fame on the wrist
October 8, 2026
Written by Dr. Adam Fleddermann, Founder & CEO of Fleddermann von Rieste, who designs every watch and oversees manufacturing and operations.
Everybody likes a good watch story, and some of the best ones belong to famous people. A president, an astronaut, a movie star, the King of Rock and Roll. The famous watches worn by famous people tend to get talked about in auction prices and brand history. But if you look a little closer, what actually made most of these watches famous wasn’t the logo on the dial. It was who wore them, what they lived through, and who they got handed to. That happens to be the whole reason we build watches, so let’s take a look at a few icons and what they can teach the rest of us.
One quick note first. None of the people or brands below have anything to do with Fleddermann von Rieste. We’re a small family owned watch company in Indiana, and we’re just fans of a good story like everybody else.
Famous Watches Worn by Famous People: Five Worth Knowing
Abraham Lincoln’s Pocket Watch
This might be the best watch story in American history, and it’s hiding inside the watch itself. Lincoln owned a gold pocket watch that was in for repair at a Washington jeweler in April 1861, right as news broke that Fort Sumter had been fired on. A watchmaker there named Jonathan Dillon engraved a note about it on the movement, where he figured nobody would ever see it.
He was almost right. The message stayed hidden for nearly 150 years, until the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened the watch in 2009 and confirmed it was there. Lincoln carried a piece of the start of the Civil War in his pocket and never knew it. If you’ve ever wondered whether watchmakers have a sense of history, there’s your answer.
Buzz Aldrin’s Omega Speedmaster
When Apollo 11 landed in July 1969, both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had Omega Speedmasters. Armstrong left his inside the lunar module as a backup, since one of the onboard timers wasn’t working. That meant Aldrin’s became the first watch worn on the surface of the moon.
Here’s the part people forget: Aldrin’s watch later went missing, reportedly lost on its way to the Smithsonian, and it has never turned up. The most famous watch of the 20th century might be sitting in a desk drawer somewhere. That’s a good reminder that even the most important objects need somebody looking after them.
Steve McQueen and the Heuer Monaco
In the 1971 racing film Le Mans, Steve McQueen wore a square-cased Heuer Monaco chronograph. It was an odd-looking watch for its time, and it could easily have faded away. Instead, McQueen’s cool rubbed off on it, and the square blue-dial Monaco became a racing icon. Few watches owe more to a single wrist.
Elvis Presley’s Hamilton Ventura
Hamilton introduced the Ventura in 1957, a triangular, space-age shape powered by one of the first electric watch movements. Elvis wore one in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, and that pretty much sealed its place in pop culture.
There’s an American watch brand history lesson in here too. Hamilton started in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the 1890s and was one of the great American watch companies. Today it’s Swiss-owned and Swiss-made, and it still makes good watches. A lot of the best American watch brands went that direction over the last century, which is part of why we think it’s worth building an independent American watchmaker again, even a small one.
Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona
This is the one collectors talk about most. Joanne Woodward gave her husband Paul Newman a Rolex Daytona with a short, loving reminder about his racing engraved on the back. He wore it for years, then gave it to James Cox, his daughter Nell’s boyfriend at the time.
In 2017 that watch sold at auction for roughly $17.8 million, and a portion of the proceeds went to Nell Newman’s foundation. Nobody paid that for the steel and the movement. They paid it for a wife’s gift, a racer’s wrist, and a watch passed along with trust. Take the story away, and it’s just a nice Daytona.
What Makes a Watch an Heirloom
Line those five up and a pattern shows up pretty quickly. Famous or not, a watch becomes something worth keeping for a few simple reasons:
- It gets worn. Every one of these watches was used, not locked away. Wear is where the stories come from.
- It marks a moment. A war beginning, a moon landing, a movie, a marriage. Watches are good at holding on to a date.
- It gets passed on. Newman gave his away. Lincoln’s went to the nation. The watch outlived the wearer and kept going.
- Somebody takes care of it. The Lincoln watch survived because it was kept. Aldrin’s is lost because, somewhere along the way, it wasn’t.
Notice what isn’t on that list: price. Heirloom watches don’t have to start expensive. They just have to be built well enough to last, and serviceable enough to keep running for the next person.
The Most Famous Watch in Our Family
Every family has a famous watch, even if nobody outside the family has heard of it. Ours belonged to my great-grandfather, Bernard Fleddermann, who farmed in St. Mary’s, Indiana. His watch came from Ritzi Jewelers in Brookville. It was never on a movie screen or the moon. But it’s the spark for this entire company, because I watched how much it meant to the people who cared for it after him.
That’s what we’re chasing at Fleddermann von Rieste. We’re an Indiana watch company, and every watch is assembled and hand-regulated here by an AWCI-certified watchmaker in Kokomo. The idea is attainable legacy watches: an heirloom from the first time on your wrist, at a price a regular family can reach. We may not be your grandfather’s watch, but with time, we hope to be your grandson’s.
A Quick Word on Endorsements
We aren’t claiming any of these famous folks would have worn our watches. They didn’t, and we won’t pretend otherwise. The brands above made the watches that made the headlines, and they deserve the credit. We just think the lesson from their stories belongs to everybody: the watch that matters most is the one with your family’s story on it.
Starting Your Own Famous Watch Story
You don’t need an auction house or a film crew. You need a watch that’s built to last and a reason to wear it: a graduation, a new job, a wedding, a son heading out on his own. Wear it hard, take care of it, and hand it down someday.
If you’re looking for a place to start, the Hanoverian is our 41mm everyday automatic watch, with a sapphire crystal, 316L stainless steel, and 10 ATM water resistance. And if you want help picking the right one for somebody, just email me at adam@fvrwatch.com. I read every one.
Dr. Adam Fleddermann, Founder & CEO
Dr. Adam Fleddermann founded Fleddermann von Rieste after growing up watching his father care for a watch passed down through generations of the family. He designs every watch and oversees the brand’s global supply chain, operations, and manufacturing, working alongside an AWCI-certified watchmaker and his team who lead the hand-assembly of every timepiece in Indiana.
