Watches made with rockers’ donations aid addiction fight

This holiday shopping season, a handful of the most high-profile rockers on the planet (including Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne and Steven Tyler) are giving the shirts off their backs — make that the leather jackets out of their closets — to help fellow musicians fight addiction.

Thanks to a partnership between the Recording Academy’s MusiCares charity and Encinitas, Calif.-based watch brand Nixon, items donated from the musicians’ wardrobes have been repurposed into leather watchbands that will benefit the MusiCares MAP (Musicians Assistance Program) Fund, which helps members of the music community get access to addiction treatment and recovery services.

Dubbed the Rock Ltd. collection, the offering also includes watchbands crafted from guitar straps (donated by Pete Townshend and Eddie Van Halen), drum kit scraps (courtesy of Ringo Starr) and one brown leather boot from Tom Waits, who is quoted as vowing to wear the other boot, solo, “until everyone is clean and sober just like me.”

The watchbands — bearing the cracks, abrasions and wear marks that come with rock-star living — are paired with one of three Nixon watch styles to create an 84-piece collection priced in the $900 to $1,600 range with 100 percent of proceeds going to the MAP Fund. Each hand-numbered watch has a custom case back bearing the donor’s name and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Among the highlights are the Nixon Sentry Chrono 42 mm timepieces (14 total) with bands made from a black leather jacket from Rolling Stone Richards ($1,500 each), the 51 mm 51-30 Chrono watches (19 in all) with straps crafted from a black leather trench coat donated by Osbourne ($1,500 to $1,600) and the three 42 mm Sentry Chrono watches with antiqued brass cases and scuffed leather bands fashioned from Waits’ boot ($1,500).

Plans are in the works for a second collection, featuring different artists, for spring.