Watch Paparazzi

Basketball player Russell Westbrook spotted wearing Patek Philippe

Russell Westbrook was recently photographed wearing what appears to be a one-of-a-kind creation based on the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5719/11G — a reference that already sits at the apex of the manufacture's jewelry watch output. The piece layers baguette-cut sapphires across the bezel, along half the integrated bracelet, and onto the dial's hour markers and hands, sitting alongside pavé-set diamonds that cover the remaining surfaces. The result is a watch that reads more as haute joaillerie than horology, yet retains the unmistakable architecture of Gerald Genta's original 1976 Nautilus design.

The 5719 family — formally the Nautilus Haute Joaillerie — is built around Patek Philippe's in-house Caliber 324 S C, a self-winding movement with a 45-hour power reserve, running at 28,800 vph and certified to the manufacture's rigorous internal quality standards. The 40mm case in 18k white gold echoes the proportions of the original 3700/1A 'Jumbo,' keeping the integrated bracelet and porthole-style case that made the Nautilus a design icon. Standard production 5719 references are already set with diamonds; this custom commission goes substantially further, introducing a second stone type — sapphires — and distributing them with a deliberate asymmetry across the bracelet.

From a collector standpoint, documented pièces uniques from Patek Philippe — particularly those built on the Nautilus platform — occupy their own category entirely. Provenance, commission history, and the complexity of the stone-setting all bear on value. Baguette-cut sapphires demand precision channel-setting that is significantly more labor-intensive than round brilliant pavé, and integrating them across a flexible bracelet without compromising wearability represents a meaningful technical achievement from the Geneva atelier's gem-setting workshops.

Westbrook has built one of the most watched watch collections in professional basketball, with a consistent preference for heavily jeweled and custom-modified references that align with his off-court identity as a fashion figure. The Lakers guard is not a passive collector; the pieces he chooses tend toward the singular and the unconventional.

With a grey-market valuation placed at approximately $650,000, this custom 5719/11G sits well beyond the reach of even the standard high-jewellery Nautilus, which itself commands significant premiums over retail. As a likely one-of-one, no true market comparator exists — which is precisely the point.