I Talked To The Guy Who Sold Jay-Z A ‘Fake’ Perpetual Calendar ‘Rolex’

Notes on the stories we tell.

Wristcheck. Earlier this week, I grabbed lunch with Morgan Cardet, partner with long-time dealer Matt Bain. On his wrist: Perhaps the most badass of vintage divers, a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Milspec:

An old Fifty Fathoms on a beat-up tropic strap.

The Fifty Fathoms debuted sometime in the 1950s—questions about who was first are always so tricky!— and was produced through the mid-20th century. It’s probably not the first vintage diver I’d buy: It’s niche, expensive, and trouble lurks around every corner. But it’s always fascinated me. I even wrote a collector’s guide in 2023 to mark the Fifty Fathoms’ 70th anniversary.

The Milspec 1 is defined by its humidity indicator at 6 o’clock. Initially developed for the military, it made its way to armed forces around the world, and even to civilians.

The Fifty Fathoms also wears better than its 41mm might suggest. Maybe it’s the wide rotating bezel and small dial, or perhaps the narrow lugs. This one’ll be listed on Bain’s (updated!) website for somewhere between $40–50k. Prices haven’t really moved since I published that collector’s guide 2+ years ago.

Oh, I also saw the new 38mm Fifty Fathoms for the first time last week ($18,200 on strap as seen below). It’s not bad, and the lumed, sapphire bezel is certainly distinct:

The new 38mm Fifty Fathoms—it’s got a relatively short lug-to-lug and feels compact on wrist.

I mostly prefer small watches. But look at that original Fifty Fathoms—it’s big, it’s bad. The 38mm works just fine, but to me the Fifty Fathoms makes more sense at 40-42mm, especially with those short lugs.

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I Talked To The Guy Who Sold Jay-Z A ‘Fake’ Perpetual Calendar ‘Rolex’

(L): The modified Rolex retrograde perpetual calendar Franck Muller made out of school. (R): The Rolex perpetual calendar Jay-Z owns.

As a watchmaking student, Franck Muller famously modified a Rolex Day-Date into a retrograde perpetual calendar. It’s the stuff of legend: prodigious watchmaking student modifies a Rolex into a perpetual calendar with just 50 additional components (and in the exact same case size, no less)—impressive enough to get him a meeting with Rolex.¹

A few years ago, Jay-Z started wearing a curious Rolex around town that many thought was the very one Franck made. But Jay-Z’s didn’t seem to match the description of the watch Muller made in school. The story’s long fascinated me. In a podcast last year, I even asked Eric Ku about it. Jay-Z’s watch isn’t the one Franck made, he said.

Wei Koh finally had the opportunity to ask the Master of Complications himself exactly that, and Muller clearly says Jay-Z’s watch isn’t the retrograde perpetual calendar he modified by hand. Muller sold his school watch decades ago for $10k to fund his early watchmaking career. It’s changed hands a few times since, most recently in 2010, and now sits in a Japanese private collection/museum:

The actual Rolex modified to a perpetual calendar by Franck Muller. First image: @elprimerolove via Wei. Second image is from an old auction catalog.

But it still left the question: If Jay-Z’s watch isn’t the one Franck Muller made in school, what’s the story behind HOV’s watch?

As Franck said to Wei: “I made one [perpetual calendar], and another one I explained to Antoine Preziuso the way to do.”

There’s some wonderful ambiguity in that sentence.

Antoine Preziuso is another watchmaker/customizer, and a contemporary of Muller. This second modified perpetual calendar used a Dubois Depraz module, which means it doesn’t have a retrograde date like his school watch.

I tracked down the dealer who sold this second Rolex to Jay-Z: Giulio Bonaccio, who runs Lux-O in New York, and we hopped on the phone. Giulio is one of those old-school Italian dealers. He talks fast, he talks about passion, and he doesn’t let anything get in the way of a good story.

“I sold that Rolex to Alex Todd and Jay-Z as part of a $3 million deal in 2013,” Giulio told me, “$2.9 million for a Patek Philippe 6300 Grandmaster Chime and $100k for the Rolex.”