Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Sepp Blatter spotted wearing Patek Philippe

During a FIFA press conference that made global headlines — not for football governance, but for a cash-throwing stunt by British comedian and prankster Simon Brodkin — cameras caught more than the chaos on stage. On the wrist of FIFA's eighth president, Sepp Blatter, sat a Patek Philippe World Time in yellow gold, Reference 5110J, a watch that speaks quietly of serious horological taste.

The Patek Philippe 5110J was produced from roughly 2000 to 2006, offering collectors an 18-carat yellow gold case measuring 36.4mm — a restrained diameter that reflects the classical Geneva tradition. Inside runs the manually-wound Calibre 215 PS, a slim, high-quality base movement to which Patek added the world-time module. The mechanism, developed in collaboration with the legendary constructor Louis Cottier, allows the wearer to read all 24 time zones at a glance via a rotating disc engraved with 24 city names and a peripheral 24-hour ring. It is simultaneously one of watchmaking's most legible and most historically significant complications.

For collectors, the 5110J occupies a particularly interesting position. Discontinued after just six years in production, it bridges the earlier cloisonné-dialled 2523 references of the 1950s and the later 5130 and 5230 series that followed. Yellow gold examples with well-preserved dials command strong premiums in the secondary market, and the reference's relative scarcity compared to its steel or white-gold counterparts adds to its desirability. It is the sort of watch that serious Patek collectors quietly pursue.

Sepp Blatter, once the most powerful administrator in world football and a man accustomed to the corridors of global influence, is no stranger to fine watchmaking. Switzerland is, after all, his home territory in more ways than one. His choice of the 5110J — understated, technically accomplished, unmistakably Genevan — is consistent with the tastes of someone who spent decades operating at the highest levels of international sport and diplomacy.

On the secondary grey market, the Patek Philippe World Time 5110J in yellow gold currently trades in a range reflecting its discontinued status and collector demand. The UK retail RRP at time of production was in the region of £19,000, though grey-market values have appreciated meaningfully since the reference left production, with clean examples now regularly achieving figures well above original list price.