Ryan Reynolds’ Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain in Red Gold

People & Their Watches

At 39.6 mm, the Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain makes its case through detail. The red-gold watch featured on Ryan Reynolds’ wrist rewards the closer look: a layered dial, an exposed balance wheel and finishing that makes the movement part of the spectacle.

Our Instagram post identifies Reynolds’ watch as the Balancier Contemporain in 18k 5N red gold, reference P00185. The interest is in the combination: a relatively compact case containing a display with real depth. From a distance, it reads as a gold watch on a strap. Up close, the architecture takes over.

Original post: Superwatchman. Source credit: @michelknydegger.

A dial built around the mechanics

A rhodium-coloured gold dial places the indications on different levels, with blued-steel hands providing contrast. The opening reveals Greubel Forsey’s 12.6 mm balance wheel above a black-polished gold plate. Its bridge combines black-polished steel with hand-polished bevels.

That visible construction gives the watch its character. Your eye moves between the hands, the changing reflections and the oscillating balance. For us, the appeal is how much there is to observe within such a contained footprint.

The red-gold Balancier Contemporain in a product-image carousel shared by Relógios & Relógios, with photography credited to Greubel Forsey. Swipe through for additional views.

Inside the red-gold Balancier Contemporain

The manually wound movement contains 255 components and 33 jewels. Two series-coupled barrels provide a stated 72-hour chronometric power reserve. A crown-operated stop-balance mechanism allows the oscillator to be stopped when setting the time.

What does the price tell us?

The original Instagram caption quoted a market price of $170,000. That is the figure reported in the post, rather than a current valuation or a manufacturer’s retail quote. It should not be read as evidence of what Reynolds paid.

A celebrity photograph can start the conversation, but the watch has to sustain it. Here, the useful next step is to look past the number and study the object: the proportions, the surfaces and the way the mechanics occupy the dial. Those are the details that make this Balancier Contemporain worth revisiting.

From Ryan’s own Instagram

Ryan Reynolds at Wrexham, from his own Instagram post dated 29 January 2023. This archive photograph provides a separate portrait of Reynolds; the watch identification above comes from Superwatchman’s original post.

Disclosure: Superwatchman’s original Instagram post was made in collaboration with Greubel Forsey. The post does not establish when the photograph was taken or whether Reynolds owns the watch.

Sources: Superwatchman’s original Instagram post for the wrist identification, reference, reported price and image credit; Greubel Forsey’s technical sheet for the 5N red-gold Balancier Contemporain for specifications. Images are displayed through Instagram’s official embed.