During a 2004 appearance on the Friday Night With Jonathan Ross chat show, Oasis songwriter and lead guitarist, Noel Gallagher recounted an anecdote from the mid-1990s that “narks” his brother and lead-vocalist bandmate, Liam “to this day”. 

To celebrate the success of the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Alan McGee, head of Oasis’s then record label Creation Records, gifted Liam a “solid white ‘silver’ vintage Rolex” and Noel a Rolls Royce; generating irritation from Liam over the gap in value between their gifts. Referencing his lack of a driving licence, Noel concluded the anecdote with a grin and the quip, “he can’t tell the time, and I can’t drive”. 

Liam Gallagher in San Francisco, 1997, pictured here wearing his Rolex two-tone Submariner

Formed in Manchester in 1991, Oasis spearheaded the 90s Britpop movement with critically acclaimed, best-selling albums Definitely Maybe (1994) and …Morning Glory? (1995), not to mention helping lead the charge for the decade’s ‘Cool Britannia’ cultural movement. However, the band’s professional success was always marred (or maybe enhanced, in keeping with rock & roll band tropes) by the Gallagher brother’s tempestuous personal relationship — tempestuousness that culminated in Noel’s abrupt, mid-tour resignation in 2009 and Oasis’s subsequent 16-year hiatus. 

But, as the world is aware, Oasis has finally reformed. Garnering a reported 1.4 million-plus tickets sold and a projected £50-million-each payday for the brothers, Oasis kicked off its long-awaited and at times uncertain 41-date, 13-country reunion tour in Cardiff, Wales this month.

Which watches has Liam Gallagher worn over the years?

In spite of any record label favouritism, the band’s breakout member was always the swaggering, devil-may-care frontman, Liam. With an aggressive vocal style, coupled with a high-position microphone and a hands-behind-the-back, wide footed on-stage stance, replete with mod subculture-evoking parka and sunglasses, his persona has become a benchmark for what fans want from a modern day rockstar. And, if we cast a (beady) horological eye past his reported disappointment over the gifted vintage Rolex, we find that alongside the C.P. Company parkas and Persol sunglasses, Gallagher has owned several pretty significant watches as well. 

Liam Gallagher attends the Led Zeppelin Tribute To Ahmet Ertegun concert, held at the O2 Arena on December 10, 2007 in London, England. (Photo by Jon Furniss/WireImage)

Rolex on a Jubilee bracelet, could well be the record label gifted “solid white ‘silver’ vintage Rolex” (taken at a record label Christmas party, 1995)

Most commonly spotted wearing Rolex, photos show Gallagher has had at least three different pieces from the brand over the years. Namely, a bi-metal Submariner ref. 16613 on an Oyster bracelet; along with another five-digit reference, stainless-steel Submariner on an Oyster bracelet; and what looks to be a white-metal Datejust on a Jubilee bracelet, which was photographed being put on his wrist by Noel (and could well be the offending record label gift?) Whilst attending a Led Zeppelin concert in 2007, Liam even donned a Paul Newman Daytona homage from playful, min-aughts brand ToyWatch. 

Photographs show Gallagher extensively wore his bi-metal Submariner throughout Oasis’s 1990s heyday, even going so far as to double wrist it (on at least three occasions, one of which being the music video for the 1997 single D’You Know What I Mean?) with another, unidentified, yellow-gold cased watch on a black leather strap. Joining the likes of Princess Diana, who doubled-up her dainty Patek Philippe watch with her husband’s Calatrava model for apparent safekeeping whilst watching him compete in polo matches. 

Gallagher’s wearing of two watches does, unlike Diana’s, seem to be a stylistic as opposed to a practical choice given the context and number of times he chose to do it. Not the actions of a casual consumer but of an at-least “watch curious” individual, perhaps? 

Beyond Rolex, Gallagher has also been seen wearing a TAG Heuer Monaco, notably, during a heated altercation with a paparazzi in 2001 outside London’s Portland hospital after the birth of his son with Nicole Appleton, Gene. He has also been spotted rocking a U-Boat Classico, on a camo pattern sailcloth strap.

However, by 2020 it appears Gallagher had started to neglect this wristwear. So, alongside the triumphant return of Oasis, we at Revolution are hoping for a horological comeback from Liam, too.