Auctions: Tom Brady Sale To Include His Unique Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon Among Other Watches
Tom Brady’s a watch guy. This much we’ve known for a while. In December, it’ll be on full display at Sotheby’s, where a handful of Brady’s watches will be a part of its “The GOAT Collection: Watches & Treasures from Tom Brady.” Over the years, Brady has even appeared on Hodinkee to pen an article about his personal IWC (a Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN Edition “Mojave Desert”) and chatted watches on Hodinkee Radio. Now, five of his watches are part of a sale dedicated to memorabilia from Brady’s career.
As Brady has told us, his journey into watches came after his first Super Bowl win in 2002 when he visited Tourneau in Manhattan and walked out with an IWC GST Automatic Alarm. It came full circle when Brady became an IWC ambassador in 2019 after a stint endorsing TAG Heuer. Since his (second) retirement from football, he’s become a watch free agent. We’ve seen him wearing a Rolex Day-Date “Puzzle Dial” and a vintage Rolex Daytona “John Player Special,” among other watches.
Brady’s unique flying tourbillon (est. $400,000–800,000).
One of the most notable watches that Brady has stepped out with is his custom Audemars Piguet Royal Oak flying tourbillon, and now it’s at auction. The tourbillon has a unique salmon tapisserie pattern, along with “T-O-M-VII-B-R-A-D-Y” in baguettes instead of numerals, along with a bunch more baguettes on the bezel. The rotor is also custom-engraved with Brady’s signature.
We’ve spotted Brady with a lot of good watches the past couple of years. Vintage Daytonas, a Patek 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph, and even an IWC Tourbillon Squelette. So I hope Mr. Brady takes no offense when I say that this one’s not my favorite, even if it puts some of AP’s best watchmaking on full display.
It reminds me of this joke that John Mulaney makes about Beverly Hills: “Beverly Hills is fancy…ish. It’s expensive in the way that the things DJ Khaled wears are expensive, but they don’t fill you with envy.” And that’s basically how I feel about this Royal Oak tourbillon, which has an estimate of $400,000–800,000. This also coming from a Colts fan, a team that Brady bowled over for at least a couple of those “VII” Super Bowls. So, consider a grain of salt.
For Sotheby’s, the sale is another major celebrity get, just a season after the auction house sold Sylvester Stallone’s Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime for $5.4 million. These highlights are part of a sale that will feature 47 items in total – 27 watches (with an approximate total estimate of $3-6 million), and 20 sports items (estimate $3-5 million).
Alongside the Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon, four other watches from Brady’s collection are in the sale. There’s a Richard Mille 35-03 “Baby Nadal.” This is the edition that introduced RM’s variable inertia “butterfly” rotor and made it so the wearer could adjust it with that pusher at seven o’clock. The idea behind the adjustable rotor is that you can vary the inertia of the rotor by changing the position of its two wing-like elements. Press that pusher at seven o’clock, and it goes into “Sport Mode,” where the movement of the rotor is blocked. It’s a neat little innovation, and Brady’s been seen wearing several RMs over the years. Estimate: $300,000–$500,000.
As an athlete of considerable renown, Brady’s also got the requisite Patek Philippe Nautilus and Rolex Day Date. The Nautilus is a 5980R, a rose gold chronograph. Patek added a bracelet to it back in 2013 because every Nautilus needs a bracelet. Back then, Ben said, “If you’re THAT guy, this is THE watch to wear. You know what we mean.” Surely, Brady qualifies, perhaps more than anyone on the planet, as THAT guy, and you can certainly find photos of him wearing his 5980 since he acquired it in 2017. Estimate: $180,000–$240,000.
Brady’s IWC Top Gun “SFTI.”
While Brady has been recently freed from the benefits and burdens of paid ambassadorship, one lot at Sotheby’s harkens back to his days with IWC. And we must remember, the relationship is one that began quite organically – Brady famously says that the GST Automatic Alarm that he eventually bought at Tourneau was actually his screensaver for years before.
You might remember the parade from Brady’s last Super Bowl victory with the Tampa Bay Bucs for him tossing the Lombardi Trophy across the Tampa Bay, but he can also be seen wearing this IWC Top Gun Edition “SFTI.” Estimate: $12,000–$18,000.
Brady’s final game worn jersey from his college years at Michigan (est. $300,000–$500,000)
Along with the watches, Sotheby’s is also selling memorabilia from Brady’s career: The NFL Combine shirt from his 40-yard dash (est. $100,000–$200,000); the final game-worn jersey from his college years at Michigan (est. $300,000–$500,000); and a game-used helmet from his time with Tampa (est. $100,000–$150,000).
Back in the crazy days of 2022, a Brady rookie card sold for $2.3 million, making it the third-most expensive football card ever. Like watches, collectibles of every category have cooled since. That said, interest in Brady is still strong, even if he’s getting roasted on Netflix nowadays instead of playing on Sundays.
I’m curious to see what the “Brady premium” will be, if any, for the watches in this sale. Surely, the unique Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon will command a sum more handsome than Brady since it literally screams “Brady” at you in diamonds, but the other watches feel less identifiable with Brady, the GOAT. Sure, provenance is always part of a watch’s value, but how much?
These highlights, along with all 47 items from The GOAT Collection, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on December 10th. They’ll also be on exhibition in the week leading up to the sale. For more information, check out Sotheby’s website.
Hodinkee