The Full Story Of How Jay-Z Came To Subtly Flex One Of Patek’s Rarest Vintage Pieces

The rapper and collector has recently been seen wearing a Patek Philippe 2499, one of the world's most coveted watches. Getting it in his hands was 43 years in the making.

Jay-Z lives atop the modern pop culture pantheon. He's achieved so much in his career as an artist, producer, and entrepreneur that he no longer needs to make music or produce Super Bowl halftime shows, though he does these things anyway. The point is: Every move he makes has the potential to create waves. That includes the way he collects watches.

He has always understood the power of the silent flex. From wearing platinum watches in the late-1990s to diving into the deepest of deep watch-lover nerd watches today, his tastes have been less a reflection of current pop culture and more a symbol of his own high-end predilections. For fans, watch-spotting Jay-Z has become a way to try to understand the man, his tastes, and how he sees himself in the larger world.

So we took notice when he wore a Patek Grandmaster Chime to this year's Grammy Awards. Then the day after the Oscars, photos started coming out of the afterparty he threw with Beyoncé. Two images – cell phone snaps by Jay's friend, photographer, and Roc Nation Senior Vice President Lenny S – started circulating immediately in watch circles and on fan pages of the man himself wearing a rare and possibly unique vintage Patek Philippe ref. 2499.

To see such an unusual piece from the 1980s – an incredibly complicated watch complete with a rare factory-made chain-link bracelet – on Jay's wrist was pretty major. I checked with colleagues to see if he'd worn this watch before, and nobody could remember a time that he had. Big-name collectors are reluctant to ever fully open the vault, so to speak, so it was not necessarily a surprise we hadn't seen it before.

I shared the photo on Instagram expecting that to be the end of it. A few minutes later I looked over and saw two WhatsApp messages from a relatively private watch collector and former dealer who I'd come to know as having built one of the most prolific and extensive Patek and AP collections in the world. He had previously turned down my requests to do a story about his collection. Still, we kept in touch.

"Hi Mark. I hope you are well."

The timing was too perfect. And while it confirmed my suspicions of a great story, it also started a flurry of research to get to the bottom of how Jay-Z became an owner of such an iconic watch, especially when I knew people would be reluctant to talk.

This is how Jay-Z ended up with one of the rarest vintage Patek Philippes in history.

Why This Watch Matters
The Patek Philippe ref. 2499 is considered by many collectors to be the greatest wristwatch ever made.

From 1950 to 1985, with the reference 2499, Patek Philippe had a monopoly on serially produced watches with the combination of a perpetual calendar (a calendar that will account for the length of months and for leap years), moonphase, and chronograph. But they didn't make many – 349 examples total, less than 10 per year.

To have a 35-year domination of the market was extraordinary. But it was not new for Patek. From 1941 to 1954 the brand produced the reference 1518, the predecessor to the ref. 2499, but in only 281 examples. The 1518 was the original but the ref. 2499 was still the grail.

"In my opinion, it's just the size that made it the anointed 'must have' perpetual chronograph from Patek Philippe," says John Reardon, former International Head of Watches at Christie's, lover and scholar of all things Patek, and founder of the vintage and pre-owned Patek Philippe dealer Collectability. "The design of the 2499 was a natural progression of the perpetual calendar chronograph into a larger case for mid-century Patek Philippe."

The case was 2.5mm larger on the later iterations – a small amount all things considered – but this more modern and wearable 37.5mm size had a better aesthetic and physical balance, legibility, and wearability, with a design that was still pure Patek.

In the early 1990s, there started to be a run on the ref. 2499. Reardon and his friend Michael Friedman, another former Head of Watches at Christie's and until recently Head of Complications at Audemars Piguet, have spoken in the past about the "Wild West" days of collecting 2499s. Different combinations of dials and metals traded hands at auction and in private between informed and affluent collectors f*ghting to own the best examples.

"This is the blue chip of blue for Patek Philippe collectors," Reardon says. "And what happens when there are no blue chips to buy on the market? Even bigger prices. Of the 349 ref. 2499s made between 1950 and 1985, just over half have surfaced publicly to date."

The rarest may be one of two ref. 2499s cased in platinum, a watch that was originally intended to stay at the Patek Philippe museum. But somehow the watch was coaxed from the brand's hands and into an auction hosted by Antiquorum in April 1989 titled "The Art of Patek Philippe." At that auction, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Patek's founding, the platinum 2499 sold for around $615,000, adjusted for inflation. While a remarkable price for the time, it was nowhere close to the craziness to come for the 2499.

“I'm so tomorrow the Audemars says yesterday”
Around the time mid-nineties when the ref. 2499 was starting to take off, so was Sean "Jay-Z" Carter.

With his 1996 release of the album Reasonable Doubt on his own Roc-A-Fella records, Jay-Z signaled to the world that he had his eye on watches. But Jay-Z knew that it wasn't just enough to own the same thing everyone else had: "You guessed it, manifest it in tangible goods/Platinum Rolexed it, we don't lease."

Next to lyrics about iced-out watches and (weirdly enough) Movados, when everyone else was buying steel and gold Rolexes, Jay-Z talked about the finer things on the Reasonable Doubt track "Can I Live."

In fact, there are about a dozen lyrics in his early albums about watches. His love affair with Audemars Piguet seemed to fully take off in 2001 on The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse, shouting out "Audemars-Piguet, with the alligator strap" on "Show You How." It was around that time Jay had started to come into his own as a businessman and entrepreneur, founding Rocawear in 1999 and endorsing Reebok just two years later. In 2004, he became president and CEO of Def Jam.

Jay-Z first big business venture in the watch space came in 2006, when Jay-Z worked with Audemars Piguet to make a 100-piece limited edition Royal Oak Offshore with his autograph emblazoned engraved into the caseback.

That special edition wouldn't be the last. After rapping about Hublot in 2011 on Watch the Throne, Jay followed up with a 2013 collab with the brand, releasing the Sean Carter Hublot Classic Fusion in both black ceramic in yellow gold. Then Beyoncé also reportedly gave him a $5 million diamond-set Hublot for his 43 birthday.

The list of lyrics – and watches – goes on and on.

He's appeared in Hodinkee time and time again, wearing multi-million dollar unique Richard Milles that have become commonplace (almost required wearing) in the rap scene. He continues to wear APs. There's been the surprise JLC. And course, he still wears Rolex too, including a unique Rolex modified from a basic Datejust by Franck Muller and turned into a perpetual calendar.

But in recent years elder statesman of hip-hop has gravitated toward rare and iconic watches from Patek Philippe. It almost seems like when Jay sees the rest of the scene coming up behind him, starting to pick up on the things he has liked and worn, it's just a signal to him to move on.

And where else to move but Patek? After all, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have had a successful partnership with Tiffany & Co. – Beyoncé was the first Black woman to wear the iconic 128.54 carat Tiffany Diamond in an advertisement with her husband. Tiffany, in turn, has had a longstanding relationship with Patek Philippe and celebrated that relationship by sending off Patek's most in-demand watch – the Nautilus ref. 5711 – with a Tiffany-themed (and Tiffany-colored dial) goodbye. One of those watches was auctioned off by Phillips for $6.2 million. Eight days later, Jay-Z was wearing his own.

Jay has also been seen wearing Patek's most expensive and complicated production model, the Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300G, on multiple occasions – to Diddy's 50th birthday party in 2019 and to this year's award ceremony where his wife broke the record for most Grammys. Wearing rare Patek feels like a way to separate himself from the crowd and settle into his place above the noise.

It's a wordless way of saying "I know who I am, and I'm not like anyone else. You might want to be me, but you can't. Even my watch shows it."

"THE" 2499
In the same 1989 sale as the platinum 2499, there were a few other interesting and unique watches from Patek, including perpetual calendar chronographs. One, specifically a ref. 2499/101J – movement number 869,392 and case number 2,779,153 – stood out.

The watch had a sapphire crystal – placing it among the fourth out of four series of the reference – and was sold to its first owner on April 25, 1980, 43 years ago. But it was the designation "101" at the end that gave it its special character as one of less than four ref. 2499s to leave the factory with a bracelet integrated into the case over the course of 35 years of production.

Vintage Pateks on bracelets have only started to see appreciation from a wider group of collectors, but back then, the demand was much lower. While unique watches normally come with a high premium, the bold design of the woven gold bracelet probably seemed at odds with the understated elegance of Patek at that time and suppressed the final price to just below $200,000 adjusted for inflation.

By the time movement number 869392 reappeared at Christie's auction house in 2013, the watch looked completely different. That change has led to wild speculation in the past week – everything from completely new cases being used to forgeries and duplicate serial numbers. The real story is almost more fascinating.

The aforementioned very private collector and former dealer sits at the center. Tony Kavak, who appropriately goes by "Only_TheRarest" on Instagram, retired about 10 years ago from working as a watch dealer, trading in some of the rarest watches on the new and vintage market out of shops in his hometown of Stockholm and in Zurich before turning his business over to his son. But more important, Kavak has been a passionate collector of vintage Patek Philippe (and Audemars Piguet) for decades.

"I bought my first ref. 2499 back in 2001 when I was 33 years old," Kavak says. "It was one of the most expensive watches I had ever purchased, but it was the classic. I immediately fell in love. It just felt right on my wrist. But when I started reading about the history of the 2499, I was fully sold on not just the watch but the era of Patek watchmaking."

When it came to this sale, however, Kavak didn't seek the spotlight. In fact, it seems that observant fans of Patek noticed the early photos of Jay-Z from Gold Party, remembered Kavak's collection and, after putting the pieces together, posted on Instagram. Those people, alongside Jay-Z fan accounts and even Jay-Z's friends themselves, have tagged Kavak in their posts frequently in the last week. The cat was out of the bag.

Still, Kavak, who had never done an interview before, was reluctant to share much about how this rare 2499/101J ended up with Jay-Z. After some careful consideration and with even more careful word choice, he was willing to fill in some of the gaps in the story and his history with the watch. Out of an abundance of deference to Jay-Z and his privacy, Kavak shared only the smallest details about his time with Jay-Z, the delivery of the watch, and of course mentioned no details on the price.

What he did share, however, points to this as a possible moment that we'll see Jay-Z – and because of him the wider world – start to pay attention to vintage Patek Philippe more than ever before.

In 2013, when the 2499/101J reappeared on the market, the winning bidder got a relative steal, paying just over $220,000 (adjusted for inflation) – below the price from 1989.

The case and movement number matched the original from Antiquorum but the addendum on the lot title saying "later added lugs" probably scared some bidders off. By Kavak's best understanding, a previous owner liked the idea of owning a ref. 2499 but likely thought that the bracelet was too strong a statement. At some point an owner went directly Patek Philippe to have the case reworked to match an otherwise-normal and period-correct watch, adding lugs so it could be worn on a leather strap. It's something that would be considered sacrilege today, but the request was honored.

...

Over that same interim period, the ref. 2499 had its first big celebrity moment. It was in the 2000s when classic rock guitarist Eric Clapton bought the platinum ref. 2499 that had previously sold at Antiquorum before selling it himself for around $4,500,000 (adjusted for inflation) at Christie's in 2012, a year before the 2499/101J resurfaced.

A year or two later, Kavak bought the 2499/101J from a private collector and he himself wore the watch on a leather strap a bit. But the idea of the watch missing its original flair gnawed at him. By his research and experience, despite Antiquorum's claim that there were "less than four" 2499s made on a bracelet, Kavak had seen enough watches and heard about enough others to believe the watch was possibly unique.

Sources I've talked to have confirmed that at least two other 2499/101J examples exist but were made in the watches' third series and with a completely different style of bracelet – one of which also had its bracelet removed and lugs installed.

"You have to be a very special personality to wear a watch on a bracelet like that," Kavak says. "In some ways, I could understand why it was done, but it still didn't feel right."

Kavak turned to contacts at Patek Philippe, calling in the biggest of big favors to the upper echelon of the company, and asked them to return the watch to its original state. It took two years of work to remove the later-added lugs, recreate the bracelet, and attach it to the case. That work left the original case – and case number – intact but returned the watch to its rightful state.

The work was Patek at its finest and the 2499/101J was whole again.

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About That Night…
Aweek before the Oscars, Tony Kavak flew from where he had been staying in Miami to Los Angeles to finally meet the man he had grown to know through connections with others for about six years. Over that time, Kavak learned a lot about Jay-Z and his tastes. So on this first meeting, he brought something outside the box and special – not necessarily to sell, but to share from watch lover to watch lover.

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Like any two watch lovers would, the two sat down and started talking watches, getting to know each other better through the objects they both loved. Kavak explained his love for vintage Patek Philippe, his preferred eras and references, and why they were important in the history of horology. There was no rushing to a deal. Even if Jay-Z may have heard it all before, Kavak told me Jay was attentive, soaking in every word and obviously deeply appreciative of the knowledge and passion.

"I told Jay-Z everything I've learned about Patek Philippe, from the company's start in the 1800s to how it's become and what it is today," Kavak says. "I told him why I love what I love and how long it's taken to collect these important watches."

It was then Kavak showed Jay-Z his prized 2499/101J. It was among the watches Kavak considered his personal grails, ones he never planned to let go. In fact, during our conversation, I got the sense that Kavak still can't even believe he did. The watch meant a tremendous amount to Kavak, who after retiring from working as a dealer made it a rule to never sell a watch but only to trade with other collectors if he really wanted something they had.

But according to Kavak, when he showed Jay the watch, his reaction was priceless.

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"You should have seen his happiness," Kavak says. "It just reminded me of how happy I get when I find something rare myself. I mean, I still get excited to get any watch, even the more normal examples. Finding something good, it's priceless. So when I saw his face, I knew he was the right person to own the watch."

Kavak told me he really didn't want to let the watch go, but after a little time, a deal was eventually reached, and Kavak handed the grail to its new owner.

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"It wasn't a situation like 'gimme the watch, here is the money, see you next time,'" says Kavak. "He was very obsessive and interested in every part of the story of the watch, with the history, with the complication."

Letting go was hard, Kavak told me. "But I am happy to this watch went to Jay. Plus, with his passion, if someday he wants to let go of the watch, I feel like he's the kind of guy that will give me the chance to own it again."

The last thing that had to be sorted was the bracelet which, unlike a watch from Rolex or AP that could easily have its links removed, required more effort to be sized. The bracelet had to be sized overnight after hours, cutting links until it was perfect for its new owner to wear at the Oscars less than a week later. The rest, as they say, is history.

What’s Next?
Over the past week, the watch's lore continued to spread. Instagram accounts threw around wild and speculative numbers like $3,000,000 for a market price, but yet again Kavak wouldn't say. Price, presumably, was no object. What mattered to Jay-Z was having something great, something with history, something that likely signified a new moment in his collecting story, and frankly, something no one else could touch.

Kavak wouldn't tell me what other watches if any he has sold to Jay-Z in the past or alongside the ref. 2499. Just like with his new 2499/101J, it will be up to Jay-Z to share.

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He does, however, appreciate the interest, fascination, and support from the watch community, Jay's fans, and even his friends like jeweler Alex Todd – a watch fan himself who recently was on Wrist Check Podcast – who posted a picture of Jay-Z wearing the watch with the hashtag "OnlyTheRarest". But nothing makes him happier than the joy that Jay-Z showed wearing the watch.

Prices on the best Patek ref. 2499 examples continue to climb higher and higher. Last fall a possibly unique example with the signature of Italian retailer Gobbi Milano sold in a Sotheby's auction in 2022 for $7.68 million dollars, nearly triple the price it sold for when it came to market the previous time in 2007. If the platinum 2499 sold at auction, it would likely break the seven-figure mark. And as for prices on braceleted Pateks or what other watches Jay-Z may have in store, only time will time.

"I think this is a new era for vintage Patek," Kavak told me. "I think it is one of the most important things that could happen right now is to have someone as big as him put his weight behind loving vintage Patek. And now that he's started the trend, we will see more and more people in his world wearing these important watches."

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I just bought a gold watch, with those rocks
Yellow like the bumble bee on a Cheerios box
So I wear it everywhere now, cause its exclusive
It look like my watch and Medusa just had a stare down

-Cass

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Good sh*t OP!! for the last 2 weeks rappers and others have been talking sh*t about hov non-stop..

1st the Forbes update , now this!


Has anyone seen hating a*s 50 cent buy or show off anything new in the last 2 or 3 years??? a crib, house, car, boat, yacht anything of impressible value?

the man with a million deals and nothing to show for it!

More european product glorification by black culture

But let a white girl get some braids and it’s cultural appropriation

Cool story

what happened to the hublots LOL

Jays watch game pretty flawless
All them pieces investments too

Hov continues to push the bar higher and higher

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Looks like something my grandmother wore


Watches would be bigger art pieces if they weren't so easily knocked off and ugly. Paying thousands for something that has resell value is one thing I can't knock. But paying thousands for something that most and I mean most people can't tell if it's authentic seems absurd considering it's literally looked at in passing unless you are in a circle of watch collectors which nobody is.

The ordinary guy 'up the street' is not going to be able to tell the difference from 'up the street'. Nobody puts their wrist in another persons personal space without there being a problem.
And in this day and age NOBODY likes giving other people credit or putting them on a public pedestal
As a personal item of satisfaction I understand but as a item to brag about, it sits too low for the price tag it commands to me when there are other ways to flaunt your style


Ive paid a lot of money for a watch that went out of style and had to be replaced. Lucky it got "lost in the mail" and I was offered a complete refund.

In all my time traveling around the San Francisco Bay area I have yet to have my jaw drop because of the watch someone had on their wrist.
It's just not practical

It's an old dead industry that they keep trying to revive
It never made much sense to begin with in a world where innovation resigns supreme


'it supposedly took a long time for me to make this using a pair of pliers therefore you should pay thousands. No rare metals or stones, no difference in the way it tells time from the last one I made but I DEMAND THOUSANDS '



Outside of aligning himself with a Jew and Beyonce, I don't know how Jay z became the Brand Ambassador that he is



Paying old men money because they are still deciding to make watches using pliers. You know what else is accurate and has more functions. The phone I'm typing on


[spoiler - click to view]

Meh no hate but it's just a watch.

Call me what you want but I'm not celebrating nobody's wealth anymore other than mines..idc if they're white black etc

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n*ggaz c*ck gobble this mans wealth

Those rings though. Sheesh.

Watch is coo

but the bracelet is ugly as fu*k. Reminds me of something a granny would wear.

Boxedin1 said view image Looks like something my grandmother wore Watches would be bigger art pieces if they weren't so easily knocked off and ugly. Paying thousands for something that has resell value is one thing I can't knock. But paying thousands for something that most and I mean most people can't tell if it's authentic seems absurd considering it's literally looked at in passing unless you are in a circle of watch collectors which nobody is. The ordinary guy 'up the street' is not going to be able to tell the difference from 'up the street'. Nobody puts their wrist in another persons personal space without there being a problem. And in this day and age NOBODY likes giving other people credit or putting them on a public pedestal As a personal item of satisfaction I understand but as a item to brag about, it sits too low for the price tag it commands to me when there are other ways to flaunt your style Ive paid a lot of money for a watch that went out of style and had to be replaced. Lucky it got "lost in the mail" and I was offered a complete refund. In all my time traveling around the San Francisco Bay area I have yet to have my jaw drop because of the watch someone had on their wrist. It's just not practical It's an old dead industry that they keep trying to revive It never made much sense to begin with in a world where innovation resigns supreme 'it supposedly took a long time for me to make this using a pair of pliers therefore you should pay thousands. No rare metals or stones, no difference in the way it tells time from the last one I made but I DEMAND THOUSANDS '

You don't worry about the people that can't tell.. they're broke. Watches may be the best jewelry to invest in.

Wouldn't call it subtly... subtle would be nice. Pateks were low key. They were around since iceberg slim was pimping. He spoke on them in his books. All of the big ugly watches came in and Rolex was the top mentioned until dude started flexing pateks. Would be a bigger flex to have your own brand that ppl covet but that's what I think. Enjoy yourself.

The only thing that differentiates watches in my opinion is how nice they look. I like Movado watches because in my opinion they look nicer than any of the others.

This watch no matter how much it’s worth is just plain ugly. I would never buy it. I don’t see the hype in it. fu*k out of here jay z

Boxedin1 said view image Looks like something my grandmother wore Watches would be bigger art pieces if they weren't so easily knocked off and ugly. Paying thousands for something that has resell value is one thing I can't knock. But paying thousands for something that most and I mean most people can't tell if it's authentic seems absurd considering it's literally looked at in passing unless you are in a circle of watch collectors which nobody is. The ordinary guy 'up the street' is not going to be able to tell the difference from 'up the street'. Nobody puts their wrist in another persons personal space without there being a problem. And in this day and age NOBODY likes giving other people credit or putting them on a public pedestal As a personal item of satisfaction I understand but as a item to brag about, it sits too low for the price tag it commands to me when there are other ways to flaunt your style Ive paid a lot of money for a watch that went out of style and had to be replaced. Lucky it got "lost in the mail" and I was offered a complete refund. In all my time traveling around the San Francisco Bay area I have yet to have my jaw drop because of the watch someone had on their wrist. It's just not practical It's an old dead industry that they keep trying to revive It never made much sense to begin with in a world where innovation resigns supreme 'it supposedly took a long time for me to make this using a pair of pliers therefore you should pay thousands. No rare metals or stones, no difference in the way it tells time from the last one I made but I DEMAND THOUSANDS ' Outside of aligning himself with a Jew and Beyonce, I don't know how Jay z became the Brand Ambassador that he is Paying old men money because they are still deciding to make watches using pliers. You know what else is accurate and has more functions. The phone I'm typing on

Because other people can't identify the value and appreciate the art of something means it SHOULD be devalued? That's weird to base value on the validation of people who don't fully understand what something is. If I'm walking around w/a few million on my wrist, I don't care who else besides me knows it.

Some people do any and everything to acquire things to make themselves seem more elaborate & electrifying than they truly are. They conjure for themselves an island life surrounded by an ocean of fake love from people who wouldn't give a damn about them if they weren't wearing Christmas lights. I know not everyone is going to understand.... There are men who don't have a fraction of Jay bank account, but have a natural it factor. Alpha males who enter the room without a name in lights & still draw stares without trying. There are women out there who have that same natural glow & magnetic nature. I'm talking about a natural God given light....so they don't have to take pictures half nekkid or do what cliche chicks do to go viral. People with natural God given lights >>>>>>>
Than artificial Christmas light adorned folks. Who gives a damn about a watch???? Especially if you had to betray a slew of people to gain possession of it. I'm prepared for the E.Honda that's going to come with this unique thought....but for my thinkers....y'all know what time it is.

Imo It’s not a subtle flex…He’s a multi-billionaire, what else is he suppose to do with his money.

Got FifTeas Whole Networth On His Wrist

TL:DR

He’s rich as fu*k.