Norqain Wild One Skeleton: The Mechanical Watch an MLB Player Wore Mid-Game

There are sports watches, and then there are sports watches. The Norqain Wild One Skeleton is firmly the latter: the flagship of the young independent Swiss brand has become known as the rare luxury sports watch actually designed for use during real sports. Tennis players have worn it in competition — most notably brand partner Stan Wawrinka — and Norqain is the official luxury watch of the NHL. Now the brand has notched its most impressive athletic accolade yet: on Friday, August 21, Athletics right fielder Lawrence Butler became the first known player in Major League Baseball history to wear a mechanical watch during a game, strapping on the Wild One Skeleton Gecko against the Houston Astros.

The reason a mechanical watch never showed up in an MLB game before is physics. Bat-on-ball shocks and sliding into bases would break most movements and damage most cases, and a bulky steel watch is a liability in the field. Norqain's build is designed to ignore that problem. The brightly colored 42mm watch uses a multi-part case: a rubber shock absorber, a titanium movement holder, and an outer cage of Norteq, the brand's proprietary carbon fiber composite that's lightweight, anti-scratch, and shock-resistant. The result weighs just 78 grams yet is rated to withstand shocks up to 5,000 Gs.

There's an obvious comparison in sports-watch lore: Odell Beckham Jr. wore a Richard Mille RM 11-03 McLaren during an NFL game in 2019, a similarly trailblazing stunt. The two Swiss brands even share some parts suppliers — but the price tags tell very different stories. Beckham's RM retailed for $190,000 in 2019; Butler's Wild One goes for $6,790. That gap is the whole point of Norqain's positioning: real sports-watch engineering at a fraction of the hyper-luxury price.

Butler went 0-4 as the A's lost 4-0, and nobody sensible blames the watch — he'd been hitless five other times that month. The milestone stands on its own. Norqain has announced the MLB will auction the game-worn watch for charity. Don't expect baseball players to adopt luxury watches en masse anytime soon, but expect more Wild Ones on unexpected athletes — and a growing argument that a watch can be both a serious tool and a serious statement.