Why Everyone’s Talking About The Watch Mark Zuckerberg Wore To His AI Medical Research Interview

A podcast interview meant to spotlight artificial intelligence in medicine ended up generating just as much buzz over a watch. Mark Zuckerberg appeared on ‘No Priors’ with his wife Priscilla Chan to discuss Biohub, their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative-backed project using AI to identify, treat and eradicate human diseases, but it was the vintage Rolex on his wrist that dominated the conversation online.

The watch is a Rolex Reference 6062, known to collectors as the ‘Stelline,’ made for only a short run around 1950. It is one of only two Rolex models ever produced with both an automatic triple calendar and an integrated moonphase complication, the other being the Reference 8171, built on the brand’s calibre 9¾ movement inside a 36mm Oyster case.

Depending on condition and case metal, Stelline examples routinely sell for seven figures, with top variants reaching $2 million. A pink gold version sold at Christie’s in 2023 for 2.2 million Swiss francs, around $2.7 million, and a rarer black-dial variant with diamond hour markers went for $6.2 million at auction last year, among the highest prices ever recorded for a Rolex sold publicly.

Zuckerberg, estimated to be worth $200 billion, has steadily built a watch collection that includes far more than the grey T-shirts he was once known for. Past appearances have included a Patek Philippe Reference 5236P, a De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius, and a Greubel Forsey timepiece worth more than $900,000.

Whether intentional or not, wearing a 75-year-old analogue mechanism while describing AI’s future role in curing disease made for one of the more talked-about contrasts of the interview.