At Watches and Wonders 2026, this tonneau-shaped ticker came Benito-coded.
It’s a great time to be Bad Bunny. The musician picked up the Album of the Year at the Grammys and headlined the Super Bowl half-time show in February, and is in the midst of a world tour. These are all huge achievements that could be marked beautifully with something sentimental, like a watch.
Should the musician wish to splurge, the time couldn’t be better. At Watches and Wonders, the international watch fair that is basically the Paris Fashion Week of horology, a slew of Maison’s are showcasing their latest creations. But there’s one release in particular that feels particularly primed for Bad Bunny: The Cartier Tortue Chronographe Monopoussoir. At the Grammys, the “DTMF” artist wore a circa 2005 Collection Privée” 2498E Cartier Tortue in rose gold. The watch stood out for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it landed a spot on Puerto Rican’s wrist. Secondly, the tonneau-shaped case is a little different from your standard Tank and shows your Cartier game runs deep. It’s not as straight-up hypey as a Crash and a bigger wrist presence than the teeny tiny Baignoire. It proved the musician has a penchant for this particular watch.
Fast forward to now, and Cartier has revisited the Tortue Chronographe Monopoussoir in its Privé collection, a high-end collectors’ line revisiting historically significant models, which is in its 10th edition this year. Like it says on the tin, it’s a chronograph, born from the development of a single-button stopwatch function on the Tortue in the 1920s. It was first revisited by Cartier as a part of its Collection Privée Cartier Paris offering (which ran from 1998-2008 as a precursor to the current Privé line) in 1998.
Images via Cartier, Getty Images
In its latest iteration, the 2026 Tortue Chronographe Monopoussoir comes in platinum, dressed with a silver opaline dial and silver minute track on a burgundy leather strap. It’s a smart, elegant take on a tool watch that sets it apart from most; more refined than rugged and brimming with an internet boyfriend red carpet readiness.
So why could this be Bad Bunny’s next watch? This is a guy with a penchant for rare, shaped Cartiers. At the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, he paired a black suit with a Ballon Bleu de Cartier, and he wore a platinum Crash to a pre-Super Bowl press conference. Plus, it’s a limited edition release, and crafted from precious metals, which all lends to a certain wow factor. And he isn’t shy of scoring big-time new releases like the 37mm solid gold Malachite Royal Oak he rocked at the Super Bowl, long before most collectors had the chance to bag one. So the signs are there.
We can’t say for certain if the 2026 Cartier Privé Tortue Chronographe Monopoussoir is destined for Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s’s watch box. But with an upcoming tour stop in Tokyo next month, the stage is set for one heck of a wrist check.
