Last year, GQ’s resident
Ernest Hemingway in
skinny jeans and editor of House
Rules, Jonathan Heaf, went to
interview Johnny Depp. He was
attended by a pair of PR execu-
tives/crisis managers from a firm
called Hawthorn.
These were not the bubbly
fashionistas or epicene andro-
gynes with whom I sometimes
interact at the coalface
of the luxury industry.
No, this duo of spin
doctors was described as
if they had just stepped
out of a streamed TV
drama about, well, crisis
management. Heaf’s prose
analysed their look as
“route-one Mayfair hedgie
on an off-site: crisp, pale-blue
shirts (tucked in), narrow but
not-too-skinny indigo jeans, a
woven belt at the hips and
a vintage Rolex on the wrist”.
I may have started my working
life in the wine trade rather
than finance, but the lure of
the vintage Rolex was strong
even back in 1986: as soon as I
had ripped open my first pay
packet, I headed to Christie’s
South Kensington (RIP) and
bought a Sixties Datejust. If
only I had demonstrated less
impetuosity and waited until I
had saved more money I could
have picked up a Rolex “Paul
Newman” Daytona for a four-
figure sum.
Things have moved on since
then: among the many things we
did not have in the Eighties was
the hedge fund community.
Now, the vintage Rolex Daytona
has become the hedge funder
timepiece par excellence and
when, in 2017, Paul Newman’s
1968 Rolex Daytona sold for £14
million they must have been fist-
bumping all across Mayfair asthey congratulated themselves
on their horological savvy.
I love vintage Rolexes as much
as the next man – and when it
comes to such masterpieces as the
GMT and the King Midas, rather
more than the next man. But if I
could own any Rolex chronograph- money/value playing no part
in my choice – it would not be
vintage, but a current production
model, the “Seddiqi Special”. It is
a platinum Daytona with Arabic
indices made for the celebrated
Dubai-based retailer Ahmed
Seddiqi, proprietor of the largest
Rolex shop in the world. The
Seddiqi Special is one of the most
chic of contemporary Rolexes, a
cult just waiting to happen and
not (yet) on hedgie radar.
Alternatively you can go hyper-
vintage. According to John
Reardon, Christie’s international
head of watches, the big business
today in vintage is private treaty
sales of the Patek Philippe Ref
2499, an elite club with a joining
fee that can run to millions: at any
one time there are only 349
members worldwide.
Last time I bumped
into Reardon it was
in the cigar lounge of
the La Réserve in
Geneva, where he was
celebrating having
put together a 2499 deal
in the region of £1.5m:
as horological regions go,
this is Belgravia.
The 2499 is quintessential
Patek: a classic example of the
hand-wound perpetual calendar
moonphase chronograph. It is
important for several reasons.
First you have to know what you
are looking at: the 2499 is not a
watch easily identified at 25
metres. Second, it is a good size,
neither cuff shredder nor aspirin
tablet, it is a highly wearable
37-38mm depending on the series
(see below). Third, Patek ”owns”
the perpetual moonphase chrono
combo, as it was the first brand
to make it as a series production
watch in the Forties (the 1518),
and in the years since the 2499
took retirement, the combination
has remained at the heart of the(Because who doesn’t need, well, everything?)1,001 manssentialsThis month: Patek Philippe Ref 2499With Nick Fou l ke sAs far ashorologicalregionsgo, this isBelgraviabrand: viz, the long-running 3970,
the cult 5970 and today’s 5270.
The 2499 remained in produc-
tion for an epic length of time,
from 1950 until 1985. Such a long
run that, rather like supergroups
whose members leave/die and are
replaced, there were four separate
series of 2499. There is, of course,
so much to the 2499 that it would
take a book to do it justice, but
the Manssentials crib sheet is
as follows:
Fifties First series: square
chronograph pushers, applied
numeral hour markers,
tachymeter scale. Second series:
round chronograph pushers,
applied numerals or batons,
tachymeter scale.
Sixties and Seventies Third
series: round pushers, applied
baton hour markers, simplified
dial design (the tachymeter
scale was removed).
Late Seventies to 1985 Fourth
series: similar to the third series
but with sapphire crystal glass
(distinguished by reference
number 2499/100).
And yet, in all that time only
349 were made. That means it is
rare enough to be sought after,
but just sufficiently numerous for
there to be a market and at the
moment that market is going
gangbusters. A 2499 is the sort
of thing that every serious (and
seriously rich) watch collector
should own at some time or
another. They come to market rel-
atively rarely and when they do,
exceptional examples can fetch
north of £3m. Last year Sotheby’s
sold a double-signed 2499 (origi-
nally sold by Asprey) for £3m,
while at Christie’s a 2499, again
double signed, this time by
Serpico Y Laino, fetched £2.6m.
In other words, Heaf’s minders
are going to need to manage some
pretty lucrative crises.A watch for all time:
the second series
Patek Philippe 2499G House Rules09-19HouseRuleManssentials.indd 109 09/07/2019 11:56
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