The most popular watch in rap songs these days is rarely even pronounced correctly. Timepieces from Patek Philippe & Co. (that is: pah-tek fee-leep), a luxury Swiss brand founded in 1839, have become the hip-hop elite’s latest go-to accessories, reaching near-complete cultural saturation when Beyoncé recently rapped about owning one beside JAY-Z from inside the Louvre. She isn’t alone. As one Genius sleuth pointed out, nearly one in every eight rap songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2017 referenced the watch (an idea elaborated on in a recent video. 2017 also saw tracks like Soulja Boy’s “Patek,” Valee’s “Patek Philippe,” and in 2018 we got a Tory Lanez-featuring remix of G4 Boyz’ “Patek Philippe,” along with references from Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, and Tyga, and dozens of mentions across Migos’ Culture II.

Though the Patek boom is somewhat recent, the watch has been around rap for years, repped by JAY-Z, Pusha-T (on Linkin Park’s “I'll Be Gone” remix in 2013 and 2015’s “Untouchable”), and Paul Wall, who referenced the watch in 2006 on Lil Keke’s “Chunk Up the Deuce.”

The sudden fascination centers around three rappers: Future, Young Thug, and Gucci Mane. The most prominent catalyst was Future on DJ Esco’s “Too Much Sauce” with Lil Uzi Vert in June 2016: “Patek Philippe, the plain one/That’s too much sauce,” he raps. Gucci, newly out of prison and a mentor to both Future and Thug, was very quick to catch on. “I just ordered a Patek Philippe watch in all-white that arrived the day of the homecoming show—it’s a badass watch,” Gucci told Vogue in August 2016. And apparently he couldn't wait to flaunt it: There were flexes on three songs in the next few months (“Secure the Bag,” “Hi Five,” and “Both” with Drake).

The 2017 explosion that followed can largely be credited to Future and Migos, particularly Offset. A major mid-year jumping off point was DJ Khaled's June album Grateful with mentions on four songs. (Khaled was spotted wearing a $300,000, iced-out Nautilus in 2016.) By then, the Patek was popping up everywhere, in songs by Cardi B, Yo Gotti (“Rake It Up”), Chris Brown (“Pills & Automobiles”), and Lil Uzi Vert (“Early 20 Rager”), but the originators were still staking their claim to the watch. There are 15 mentions across 10 songs on Offset and 21 Savage’s collaborative mixtape Without Warning and eight mentions across 10 songs on the Future and Thug team-up Super Slimey, not including the song “Patek Water” (which features... Offset). Curiously, among the popular models mentioned by Offset is the super rare 5790, which doesn’t actually exist.

As in the wider world, a watch is seen by most rappers as a king-making talisman that dictates one's place in the pecking order. “A watch on a man symbolizes where he’s at in life, especially as far as class goes,” says Bobby Wesley Williams, longtime stylist to watch aficionado Future. Because of this, whether iced out or plain jane, watches make as many (if not more) cameos as chains in rap songs. And Patek Philippe has become the new standard-bearer. More popular models—Nautilus, Calatrava, and Aquanaut—can range from $20,000 to $200,000. An old-money symbol, the Patek on a rapper represents new wealth crossing the threshold and broaching high-class spaces.

“Once you have a Patek Philippe, You already in the game,” says G4 Boyz’ Buggy, who, along with his brother Ice Baby, got his first Patek in 2015. There’s a sense that owning a Patek represents entrance into a new class of rap sophisticate. “We’re buying the same watches as Future and Meek Mill and guys who are multi-platinum rappers,” adds Buggy. “Once we had it, it was a big thing for our fans and the hood.“