Tom Cruise’s Watches, On and Off Screen

Tom Cruise needs no introduction. From the character drama The Color of Money, to high-octane Mission : Impossible, he has proven that he can score across all movie genres. He also remains one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, with an illustrious 30-year (and counting) career.

Watches help make a character; and Tom has sure worn many timepieces in his long list of films. Check out the watches we’ve spotted on Tom Cruise, on screen and in real life.

In the 2010s, Tom’s everyday watch was a stainless steel Rolex Datejust with a white dial and slim roman numerals. With its clean dial, slim silhouette and Oyster bracelet, this Rolex Datejust is without a doubt a versatile and enduring classic.

In the 1988 film Rain Man, Tom starred alongside Dustin Hoffman as a self-centered car salesman. He wore an 18k yellow gold, champagne dial Rolex President Day-Date, which received a lot of airtime – especially in a scene where his character tries to pawn the watch.

On a more recent watch spotting, we saw Tom sporting a Cartier Calibre Chronograph watch. The timepiece stayed on his wrist throughout the tour for 2018’s Mission : Impossible – Fallout. He chose a stainless steel, silver dial model, and the monochromatic look adds a touch of elegance to the sporty and robust Cartier sport watch.

In the 2001 science fiction thriller, Vanilla Sky, Tom played a young publishing magnate who finds himself in an unexpected romance. IWC is one of the pioneers in creating aviation watches, and this close relation to the realm of pilots is probably why this watch was chosen for the movie.

Tom has also been spotted wearing a Breitling, and his choice is the Chronomat. With a large and hefty case, diver’s bezel, chronograph function and water resistance of up to 500m, the Chronomat line was created to weather extreme conditions. It looks just as good with casual wear, too, as we see here on Tom.

In the fourth installment of Mission : Impossible, Tom wore the grey dial Tudor Heritage Chrono watch, which was launched just the previous year. The Heritage Chrono is known for its very distinct dial, inspired by the kaleidoscopic “Monte-Carlo” dials of Tudor chronographs from the 1970s.

Tom has also worn a Panerai on-screen. He sported a Panerai Luminor GMT in the 2008 action comedy Tropic Thunder.

Top Gun (1986) is without a doubt, Tom’s career-defining project. In the aviation film, Tom played Maverick, a fighter-pilot-in-training.

Most people assume that he was wearing an IWC watch in many of the scenes, because the Swiss watchmaker has issued Top Gun-branded timepieces over the years. The truth is that IWC Top Gun watches were named after the U.S. Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program (which inspired the film), and that Tom was actually wearing a Porsche Design Orfina timepiece.