Watch Paparazzi

Basketball player Chris Paul spotted wearing Patek Philippe

Chris Paul, then playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, was photographed wearing a Patek Philippe World Time reference 5130R-018 — a rose gold dress watch that sits at the more refined end of even Patek's own catalogue. For a player nicknamed 'The Point God' and known for orchestrating offenses across multiple franchises, a watch that keeps track of the entire world simultaneously is an apt choice.

The Patek Philippe World Time 5130R is built around calibre 240 HU, a self-winding movement with a peripheral rotor — one of the thinnest world-time movements Patek has produced. The 39.5mm rose gold case houses a dial mechanism derived directly from the patents of Geneva-based watchmaker Louis Cottier, who invented the world-time complication in the 1930s. Patek Philippe acquired the rights and has produced World Time references continuously ever since, with the 5130 series representing the modern expression of that legacy. The 5130R-018 specifically features a blue lacquered dial with cloisonné-style city ring and a world map rendered on the central disc — functional cartography at wrist level.

Among collectors, the 5130R occupies a quietly desirable position. It is a proper complications piece without the six-figure entry ticket of a perpetual calendar or minute repeater, yet it carries genuine horological substance. Rose gold variants with the blue dial are considered among the most attractive references in the 5130 generation, and the model has since been succeeded by the 5230 — making surviving 5130R examples increasingly sought after on the secondary market.

Chris Paul's watch collection is no afterthought. He has been photographed in Pateks, Rolexes, and Richard Milles across his career, and his choices tend toward the considered rather than the conspicuous. The World Time 5130R fits that profile: substantial in complication and material, restrained in proportions.

At UK retail the 5130R-018 was listed at approximately £30,000. On the grey market, rose gold 5130R references now trade meaningfully above retail given the model's discontinuation, with strong examples regularly achieving $55,000–$65,000 USD depending on condition and box-and-papers status.