Saturday Night Live turned 50 this year and celebrated the occasion this Sunday with a three-hour special attended by, well, roughly every celebrity on earth. Timing has always been key for the show—one of the most memorable quotes to come from creator Lorne Michaels goes, “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.” Now, there is a special-edition watch to mark the show’s biggest anniversary thanks to current cast members John Higgins and James Austin Johnson.
Higgins and Austin Johnson worked together to create just 50 custom watches for select present SNL cast members, writers, and producers. The watches are from the Detroit-based band Shinola, which counts Higgins as a long-time fan. In fact, Higgins has worn the brand in many SNL sketches and got the idea for these special-edition watches during a visit to Shinola’s factory last summer.
The timepiece in question, a Shinola Runwell 41 with a stainless steel case and a Slate Blue dial, is a quartz-powered everyday watch with a small seconds register, leaf hands, big ole’ Arabic indices, wire-style lugs, and an onion-style crown. Taking cues from vintage pocket and wristwatches, it’s a cool-looking casual piece that nevertheless dresses up well due to its brown leather strap with contrasting cream stitching. So what’s so special about this particular edition, you ask? Flip it over, and the caseback features a big “50” with “LIVE FROM NEW YORK” above Shinola’s proud “Built in Detroit” signature. While the watches retail for a relatively affordable $650, they punch way above that price thanks to their association with his massive milestone in the show’s history.
The SNL 50 watches follow a great tradition of branded timepieces. If you were a high-performing Domino’s store manager in the ‘80s you would have received a Rolex Air-King stamped with the pizza company’s logo. In fact, corporations like Winn Dixie, Coca-Cola, Pan Am, and Honda regularly awarded their employees with Rolex watches. If a guy who worked 25 years at Coke got an Oyster Perpetual, the cast members involved in SNL’s 50th certainly deserve a watch, too.
This watch is not a direct collaboration with SNL, but a special project Higgins and Austin Johnson coordinated personally. The Runwell 41 is a good choice for such an occasion. The watch is designed and assembled in America, relatively affordable, handsome, and perfect for daily use, it’s the perfect way to celebrate a distinctly American show—which is miraculously running five decades after creator Lorne Michaels conceived of it. Come to think of it, cast members should really get a watch with a perpetual calendar when SNL celebrates its next big anniversary.
