The Unlikely Watch Collector: Marilyn Monroe

On June 1, film buffs celebrated the 100^th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth.

Born Norma Jeane Mortensen in 1926, Monroe’s cinematic output was cut short with her death in 1962. But she continues to have an outsized influence on pop culture.

Likewise, the star is only associated with two timepieces, but my goodness, they are powerful watches.

One reason for Monroe’s enduring popularity is that she is a sort of shapeshifter. In her own era, she was marketed as the “Blonde Bombshell.” In later decades, she was depicted as an actor who read James Joyce’s Ulysses and strove to better her craft.

Now, many hail her as a proto-feminist, noting her business savvy. For instance, when movie studios balked at her demand to be paid as much as her male counterparts, she and her close friend, photographer Milton Greene, announced the creation of their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, on December 31^st, 1954.

Just as Monroe’s legacy is reevaluated as times change, so, too, is the meaning of a watch.
 

Whenever a gaggle of watch enthusiasts gets together, it won’t take long before they start making hypothetical lists. One of the classic conversations revolves around the question, “If you could only have X number of watches, what would they be?”

Usually, this exercise involves breaking down these choices into categories, such as one formal and one everyday watch. But the definition of what counts as a dress watch is constantly evolving.

In Monroe’s lifetime, teeny tiny cocktail watches were appealing to women all over the world because they could be worn every day and for special occasions. And some of the most desirable of these miniature mid-century marvels were made by Blancpain and were usually cased in platinum or white gold and set with diamonds galore.
 

That brings us to the story of another influential woman, Berthe-Marie a.k.a. “Betty” Fiechter, the brand’s CEO from 1933 to 1968. Under Fiechter’s direction, Blancpain not only introduced the emblematic dive watch, the Fifty Fathoms (1953), but also introduced female-forward innovations, including the smallest movement in the world at the time (1952), which led to the Ladybird in 1956.
 

This elegant dress watch, which may have been produced sometime between the late 1940s and early 1950s, drew on Art Deco designs of the 1920s and 1930s. And Marilyn Monroe wore one of the first versions. However, as we wrote about in 2019, how Monroe acquired the timepiece is a bit of a mystery.

Despite her starring role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monroe rarely wore jewelry. In fact, apart from the watch, she only had a handful of fine jewelry pieces, including wedding rings and a Mikimoto Akoya pearl necklace.

It has been speculated to have been a gift from her ex-husband, the playwright Arthur Miller. What we do know for sure is that she willed the watch to Lee Strasberg, the legendary Actors Studio director, and it went up for auction in 2016. It was sold to Blancpain for $225,000.
 

Crafted in platinum and set with 73 diamonds, this watch holds a small mechanical movement co-signed “Rayville Watch Co. 17 Jewels.” (Fun Fact: For a while, under Swiss law, brands were only allowed to use family names if a relative was on the board. Fiechter was not a blood relation, so the watchmaker briefly operated as Rayville, a play on the name of Villeret, the town where the manufacture was located.)

Monroe’s watch also features yellow applied yellow gold hour-markers on its signed white rectangular dial. The platinum and diamond bracelet is also small. As we noted in our 2019 article, it painted “a vivid picture of how petite Marilyn was back in the day. This watch is the epitome of charm, unique personality, and elegance.”

Just like cocktail and jewelry watches are having a moment, Monroe’s visual aesthetic is always being rediscovered. In the 1980s, Madonna paid tribute to Monroe in her “Material Girl” video. Gwen Stefani was the Y2K bottle blonde. Lady Gaga has also sported platinum locks and red lips on the runway.

That “Monroe Doctrine” lives on in Blancpain’s new Ladybird Tribute, a capsule collection of seven 16mm white-gold pieces commemorating the centennial of Marilyn Monroe’s birth. All limited editions priced at $54,300, each Ladybird Tribute is a reinterpretation of the Blancpain jewelry watch Monroe once wore.
 

Moreover, each piece bears one letter of the name MARILYN – M, A, R, I, L, Y, N – individually engraved on the caseback, transforming this capsule collection into a deeply personal tribute. Each of the seven creations is mounted on a double-wrap calf strap, available in one of seven exclusive colors developed by Pantone to mark Marilyn Monroe’s 100^th birthday and inspired by her visual universe.

These are the strap/letter combos: “M” is a rose-nude called Peach Bud; “A” is an intense Hollywood red called High Risk Red; “R” is a deep, rich black called Black Beauty; “I” is a brilliant satin white called Star White; “L” is a vibrant, bold pink called Hot Pink; “Y” is a champagne hue called Golden Touch; and finally, “N” is a blush pink with satin shimmer called Dynasty Pink.

The other important watch in Monroe lore is not one that she wore, but the Rolex she gifted John F. Kennedy, Jr.

In May 1962, at a fundraiser and early birthday celebration for John F. Kennedy, Monroe took the stage in a sparkly skintight dress designed by Bob Mackie and serenaded the president with a breathless version of “Happy Birthday.” (If you need any more proof that Monroe is still culturally relevant, Kim Kardashian wore the 60-year-old gown to the Met Gala in 2022.)

However, before the party, Monroe presented JFK with an 18k yellow gold Rolex Day-Date, which was inscribed on the back with, “JACK, With love as always, from MARILYN, May 29^th 1962.”
 

Reportedly, the gift made JFK uncomfortable (this was before the sultry serenade), so he told his aide Kenneth O’Donnell to get rid of the watch and the note, and it successfully stayed out of the public eye for more than four decades before hitting the auction block in 2005 and selling for $120,000.

Fun Fact: At the time of the sale, Bill Panagopulos, founder of the auctioneer Alexander Autographs, said documentation showed the watch was handed down through O’Donnell’s family.

Since then, the Day-Date has taken on the “president” nickname; however, that is not because of JFK (that honor goes to his successor Lyndon B. Johnson, who was famous for wearing his Texas Timex while in office). Still, technically, this infamous gift was the first Day-Date to be officially presented to a president. Although Kennedy never wore it.