Keanu Reeves’ present to his John Wick stuntmen continues the celeb tradition of gifting Rolex Submariners
Luke BenedictusFor me, Keanu Reeves never really gets the respect he deserves. When you consider his body of work, he’s starred in a range of wildly entertaining movies from Point Break to Speed and the Bill & Ted films to the Matrix trilogy. But now there’s another reason Keanu has gone up in my estimations. The latest movie franchise he’s fronted has been the John Wick films, and the actor recently celebrated wrapping the fourth film in the series by giving his stunt team a special memento. Over dinner at Le Bistro Paul Bert in Paris on Saturday night, he gave a Rolex Submariner to each of the film’s four stunt men: Bruce Lee Concepcion, Jeremy Marinas, Dave Camarillo and Li Qiang.
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Each of the watches featured a personal engraving on the back to “The John Wick Five”, alongside the stuntman’s name and a personal “thank you” from Keanu.
These stunt doubles certainly earned their watches given the insane levels of action and wild martial-arts set pieces in the John Wick films. Keanu famously does a significant number of his own stunts, which means that he would also have a first-hand level of appreciation for what his stuntmen actually do in the line of duty.
Generosity aside, as watch choices go, the Rolex Submariner Ref. 126610LN ($12,900 AUD) is also an extremely solid pick that most people would be delighted to have in their collection. Released in 1953, in many ways the Submariner remains one of the classic dive watches that has evolved with incremental changes over the years. To give you a sense of just how incremental, last year the Oyster case of the new Submariner was enlarged to 41mm, up from 40mm. And never has a single millimetre been received with so much fuss.
Still, that expansion was important because while it did nudge the Sub out of what is often regarded to be the Goldilocks size range, it enabled Rolex to change the watch’s overall proportions in a favourable way. The 126620LN was effectively streamlined with lugs that are more tapered and skinnier crown guards. That extra millimetre also allowed Rolex to slightly elongate the case, giving the whole visage a better profile. On the wrist, it actually wears smaller now than the model it replaced.
Given its rugged nature and supreme versatility, the Submariner is also a strong contender for the “one watch” collection, which may be why it’s become a popular wrap gift for movie stars to hand out.
Earlier this year, there was a brief scandal around a Submariner being touted for sale that was initially presented as belonging to Russell Crowe. The Australian actor was moved to publicly state that the watch was, in fact, gifted by him to a crew member who had worked on Cinderella Man. On the back of the crew member’s watch, Crowe inscribed a Latin motto that translates to: “He conquers, who conquers himself”.
Chris Rock is also partial to doling out Rolex Submariners, too. Comedians Tina Fey and Louis C.K. both told Jerry Seinfeld in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee how they were once drafted in to help Rock out on a two-day rewrite of an unnamed movie. The writers were paid $5000 apiece for their efforts. But Rock was sufficiently happy with their work that he also sent each of them a Submariner engraved with the inscription: “THANKS FOR YOUR HELP MOTHERF*CKER”.
While the specific model of the watch wasn’t named, we’ll hazard a guess that it was the Rolex Submariner 16610, given that Louis C.K. wears it all the time.
It’s another photo to emphasise that whether you’re a funnyman or a stuntman, the Rolex Submariner really is the ultimate go-anywhere, do-anything watch.