I saw Bruce Springsteen play “Highway 61 Revisited” with Bob Dylan at Shea Stadium in 2003 and then the entirety of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle at Madison Square Garden with a full horn section in 2009. I caught The Boss again on Broadway in 2017 when he rocked out on nothing but an acoustic guitar and shushed the audience when they tried to sing along. I’ve seen Springsteen a lot, but I’d never seen this dude wear a watch. However, it seems that at some point over the past few years the Boss became an extremely discerning watch collector.
Our latest evidence of his watch glow-up comes courtesy of a Rolling Stone interview in which Springsteen wore a killer timepiece. I don’t know precisely when The Boss came around to the charms of Swiss horology, but I don’t think the vintage Breitling 765 Co-Pilot on his wrist was simply pulled from the depths of a sock drawer. Nicknamed after famed skier Jean-Claude Killy after he wore one at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the ref. 765 Co-Pilot is far from first-vintage-watch territory. The 765 is well-known to dedicated chronograph collectors and is the type of piece one has to seek out. The watch’s rarity is what makes finding it on Springsteen’s wrist so interesting. (Hat tip to watch journalist Nick Gould for this masterful spot.)
The 765 is only the latest vintage stunner Springsteen’s rocked. In 2020, Bruuuuuce was spotted with a vintage Heuer Autavia ref. 1163 “Orange Boy.” The Boss may not have a massive collection, but the pieces he does have are deep cuts, indicating someone passionate, and selective, about horology. Like the Orange Boy, the 765 is a sleeper hit.
Large for the era when it was produced, the 765 is a 40-mm stainless steel chrono with a 12-hour register and a triple-register chronograph layout displaying a 15-minute totalizer, a 12-hour totalizer, and a running seconds indicator. Powered by the hand-wound Venus 178 movement, one will run you perhaps from $15K to $20K on the vintage market today—certainly not vintage Daytona territory, but not entry-level stuff, either. Due to its diameter, this Breitling is perfectly sized for today’s tastes—perhaps even oversized, if things keep trending the way they’re trending—and hasn’t really seen the wild price fluctuations that have affected many other vintage models in recent years.
I’m not sure what to think: In over 20 years of going to Bruce shows, seeing him wearing a watch now is vaguely jarring. But as someone who pens a column on celebrities wearing cool watches, I’m also fascinated. Where did this all come from? Did a lost Uber driver drop Mike Nouveau off in Colts Neck? Is Eric Wind hanging around the Stone Pony, slinging vintage tool watches? Did James Lamdin turn The Boss onto the joys of Laphroaig 10?!
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