There are royal birthdays and there are royal birthdays where the future King of England turns 13 wearing a £570 Garmin Fenix watch in a portrait taken at Kensington Palace by Matt Porteous, while his father’s national football team has just been eliminated from the World Cup by Argentina via a Falklands banner, his grandfather is managing cancer, the country is involved in a war, and the portrait caption says “Happy 13th Birthday, George,” which covers the situation.
William and Kate released a new portrait and short video clip on July 22 to mark George’s 13th birthday, per GB News’s confirmed reporting. The portrait was taken by the couple’s trusted photographer Matt Porteous and depicts George suited up at Kensington Palace, which is the outfit choice that the palace makes for portraits of the future King rather than the outfit choice a 13-year-old makes for himself, although it is possible both align at this particular 13-year-old. The Garmin Fenix 8 Solar watch, retailing at approximately £570, was visible on George’s wrist and observed by the section of royal social media that catalogs every item worn in every royal photograph, which is a section that operates at a level of dedication that the intelligence services presumably study.
George Alexander Louis, who is third in line to the throne after his grandfather Charles and his father William, turns 13 in a year that has also seen him confirmed for Eton College in Windsor in September, placing him in the same house attended by both his father and his uncle Harry, which is the Manor House, whose housemasters now have a three-generation perspective on this family that they continue to decline to share publicly. He will be at Eton in September. He is currently 13. He is wearing a Garmin.
The Garmin Fenix series is a sports and outdoor watch designed for athletes and adventurers, featuring GPS, health tracking, and solar charging. It is not a Rolex. It is not a Cartier Tank. It is not the kind of watch that generates commentary about the dynasty’s symbolic choices. It generated commentary about the dynasty’s symbolic choices, from the section of royal social media that catalogs these things, who noted that the watch mirrors a preference established by his father William, who has also been photographed wearing a Garmin.
George is 13. He starts Eton in September. The watch costs £570 and tracks his steps.
When the future King of England turns 13 in a portrait wearing a sports watch while his country is at war and his grandfather has cancer and his uncle is doing goat yoga in Warwickshire, what exactly is the portrait communicating?
Sources
GB News: Prince George’s £570 watch seen in new video of the young royal
