Tom Cruise wears a Porsche Design Chronograph 1

Thirty-six years between Top Gun and its sequel. Same character, same watch. The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 returns on Tom Cruise's wrist in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), directed by Joseph Kosinski with a screenplay co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise's regular collaborator from the Mission: Impossible films. The story picks up with Maverick still flying, still a captain, now training a new class of Top Gun graduates for an impossible mission. Miles Teller plays Rooster, the son of Goose. Val Kilmer returns briefly as Iceman. The film made $1.4 billion worldwide.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche designed the Chronograph 1 in 1972, and it was one of the first all-black watches ever produced. Orfina built the cases. Monochrome Watches confirmed the prop watch in the sequel runs the Valjoux 7750 (visible from the counter layout at 12 o'clock with its 10-20-30 minute markings). The matte black PVD coating was developed to cut glare, which was a practical concern for racing drivers and turned out to work just as well in a cockpit. The original Top Gun in 1986 is what put this watch on the map for most people, and keeping it for the sequel was the right call. Swapping it for a brand-deal replacement would have been obvious and wrong.

The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 is the one that stayed. Thirty-six years, two films, same watch.