Watch Dandy

It’s a surprisingly vexed question. You get voted into office as a Prime Minister or President, and suddenly the public’s attention turns to your wrist. Do you continue to wear the watches you’ve worked so hard to acquire? Or do you suddenly downgrade your wrist to what you were wearing when you were in short pants … Among the current international statesmen, Vladimir Putin is very much in the “If you’ve got it flaunt it” category. His astonishing watch collection stands alone. Where others prevaricate over Patek or Pulsar, Putin puts on the Ritz. Picks of the bunch would have to include his platinum A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph that’s valued at over 525’000 CHF (more than $AUD890,000). The Russian president’s watch drawer is also known to includes a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar, Patek Philippe Calatrava, Breguet Marine, Blancpain Leman Flyback, and a Blancpain Leman Aqua Lung Grande Date (his fourth after he gave two Aqua Lungs away – one to a locksmith, another to a shepherd’s son – and then threw a third into liquid concrete at a building site). But would Putin’s Platinum-level wristgame be tolerated for long in a modern democracy? Judging by the wrists of other…

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The idea came from a letter we received at info@timeandtidewatches.com We are lucky to receive a lot of random personal mail at that address. And the truth is we read all of it and try to reply to as much as we can. The influx of mail since cities have starting locking down around the world in response to COVID-19 has been noticeable, and the tone of it is different. You can tell people have time on their hands. Richard Winter from the UK summed it up perfectly in his note:  “I am managing to work from home but not being with colleagues makes it a real chore and not the promised land people assume it must be. After finishing work finding something interesting to do or watch is actually quite difficult and spreading out decent box sets to watch over a 12-week period is more difficult than you’d think.” Richard goes on to say that an unlikely saviour for this one day – one day out of we sadly suspect will be over a hundred more, certainly in Australia, where we are only just going into lockdown over the last week – was the Time+Tide YouTube channel. Richard falls…

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In the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, France’s leader Nicolas Sarkozy, was preparing to deliver a campaign speech in Paris. Striding through the heaving crowd in Place de la Concorde, Sarkozy grinned and shook the hands of his cheering supporters. But halfway along, a realisation flashed through his mind. Without stopping, he whipped off his watch and surreptitiously tucked it into his pocket.   The watch in question was a Patek Philippe 5140G-001 Perpetual Calendar in white gold with an opaline white dial. A gift from his wife – the former model and millionaire heiress Carla Bruni – Sarkozy’s watch had a value back then of 55,000 euros. Inevitably, Sarkozy’s sleight-of-hand act was caught on camera – you can watch his switcheroo below (forward to 2.05). Afterwards, he was crucified by the press for a gesture that was viewed both as proof of Sarkozy’s mistrust of his own people and the admission that his extravagant wristwear was inappropriate for a man in his position. Notably the man who ousted Sarkozy in the subsequent election, Francois Hollande, opted to wear a modest Swatch. Political leaders live in a world where every speck of their life is deconstructed and analysed to…

The post “If you don’t have a Rolex by the time you reach 50, then you have clearly failed in your life.” Remembering Sarkozy, the ‘Bling-Bling’ president appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.