As a result, smart dealers are said going all-in on Mayer spikes before they even materialize. Mayer wore a steel Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar during a self-styled GQ shoot last year. Eric Wind, owner of Wind Vintage, told me he knows of collectors and dealers who have bought up that reference in massive quantities, for precisely that reason. Somewhere, a dealer is sitting on 20 or so Royal Oaks from the ‘80s, all in the name of John Mayer.

The Rolex Submariner bearing the logo of the French-diving company COMEX that Mayer praised in his first Hodinkee "Talking Watches" video.

While Mayer has given wings to the prices of individual watches, his greater impact, these experts say, is what Mayer has done for collecting generally. “If it weren’t for John, would we get to this level with vintage watches?” Nerswick asks, referencing the currently exploding market. “Yes,” he says, guessing that it might have taken as long as another decade. “He definitely spurred that growth because he has such a wide audience.” Ben-Yehuda appreciates the way each of Mayer’s watches comes with a story, which are worth as much as gold in the current provenance-obsessed timepiece market. Think back to Mayer’s first Hodinkee video, when he spoke about his COMEX-stamped Rolex like a dreamy teenager. “This is a watch, if you wore it to dinner, it’s invisible to people unless they know what it is,” says Mayer. “Those are my favorite watches.” Consider how notable that is compared to other celebrity collectors, who often gravitate toward the super luxurious or super bust-down: watches Mayer’s hypothetical dinner party patrons would gawk at until the creme brulee arrived.

Mayer stewards a mode of collecting that resonates because of its accessibility. While there are other prolific and famous modern collectors—Ed Sheeran, Kevin Hart, and Ellen DeGeneres all have seats at the table—they tend to focus on the loveliest and most expensive examples from brands like Patek Philippe and Rolex (and, in Sheeran’s case, Richard Mille). Accordingly, in terms of influence over today’s watch market, Nerswick says, “John is in a league of his own.” At most, those other collectors can influence a tiny percentage of the watch community—their examples are just too rare and expensive to follow. It’s easier for newbie watch nerds to follow in Mayer’s path, falling head over heels for their own steel Rolexes, dreaming of some story of their past exploits.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual calendar dealers are hoarding because Mayer wore the piece in GQ.

But what’s most notable to those I spoke with is Mayer’s free-agent status. Today, any celebrity who has shown an ability to read a clock is typically lassoed into a paid ambassadorship with one of the larger brands. Mayer’s love of watches, unburdened by corporate commitments, is accompanied by a sheen of authenticity.

And at this point, Mayer has the added benefit of being John Mayer. He no longer needs to adhere to any watch-world trend, if he ever did, and is free to do what we’d all love to: follow his own tastes. He is, by now, a one-man trend-setter: he has proven himself to have great knowledge and taste, so the watches he likes must, therefore, be good and tasteful. Which sounds great, but is not without its own challenges. “I bet that that's kind of a hard position to be in as a collector,” Ben-Yehuda says. “Like, every watch has to be fire. But I guess from his point of view, if he wears it, then it's fire."