Great watch wearers: Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston has been everyone’s favourite girl next door for decades. She rose to global superstardom as Rachel Green in the NBC sitcom Friends, which aired back in 1994 and is still, curiously, the UK’s most-watched show on Netflix.

Her filmography is a roll call of consistency and sheer graft, with two, sometimes three projects a year, every year since the dawn of the ‘90s– TV, movies, animation voiceovers, special appearances. She’s a trouper.

Her on-screen comic timing as immaculate as her off-screen wardrobe, Jen’s been followed throughout her career by the paparazzi, snapping at her classic, impeccable heels.

Californian, clean, elegant but always sexy, Aniston’s fashion looks have been as consistent – and as popular - as her movie career, though never straying beyond pared-back styles in muted colours. She radiates Californian-born health and good fortune. Wisely chosen accessories complete the picture, and to top it all, the watch.

There’s no hiding it now – Jen’s a Rolex girl, and her collection reflects her professed love for the brand. Most often snapped on the wrist is Jen’s Rolex President Day Date, a powerful, ostentatious 18k yellow gold piece with a champagne dial, in 36mm diameter.

It’s a long way from the Mickey Mouse watch that was her first, and which kick-started a lifelong love of watches. Interviewed in the Fondation Haute Horlogerie’s FHH Journal, she says of her Mickey watch, “it stopped working after I dropped it in the bath. I was inconsolable.” The gold Rolex must have cheered her up.

Jen’s collection reflects ample generosity, as befits a Hollywood actor, but also practicality; watches align with purposes, or rather, events. A Cartier Roadster in stainless steel offers a change of gear from the Rolex’s swagger, with its clean tonneau case recalling 1950s car design. For evening, a white Lady Datejust. At night, a total change of scene – the Rolex Milgauss, complete with green sapphire and orange detailing, in custom black PVD. Aniston describes her watches as both “discreet” and “imposing”. These are serious watches, for a funny woman. They say: don’t mess with this girl next door.

This pragmatic approach extends to Jen’s collecting philosophy. As with her famous clothing, she prefers enduring style over passing trends. (Us mere mortals say ‘I know what I like, and I’m sticking with it’).

“I think about how [the watch] will weather time,” Jen says, in her FHH interview. Admittedly, there’s a coherence to Jen’s collection – big, men’s Rolexes in the myriad of colour and style options the huge Rolex range affords.

It’s an expansive collection reflecting, not trend or fashion, but one woman’s style and personal taste. “... but you have to be able to tell the time. I mean, that’s the whole point of wearing a watch, right?”