Riccardo Spagni — watch collection

About Riccardo Spagni’s watch collection

Riccardo Spagni is a South African-born software developer and entrepreneur best known as the former lead maintainer of Monero, the open-source, privacy-focused cryptocurrency that has become one of the most technically sophisticated projects in the digital assets space. Spagni, who goes by the online handle "fluffypony," has been a prominent and at times polarizing figure in the crypto industry, valued for his technical depth and outspoken views on financial privacy. Beyond his work on Monero, he has been involved in various blockchain and technology ventures, making him one of the more recognizable names at the intersection of open-source development and decentralized finance.

The Riccardo Spagni watch collection, based on sightings documented so far, is defined by a single but extraordinarily deliberate choice: the Jacob & Co Astronomia in black gold, reference AT100.31.AC.SD.A. This is not a watch someone stumbles into — it is a studied acquisition. The Astronomia is Jacob & Co's most architecturally complex piece, a three-dimensional touring movement in which the entire gear train rotates around a central axis, with a one-carat diamond replacing the traditional tourbillon cage weight. The Black Gold variant takes that already extreme concept further, housing it in a 47mm case crafted from black gold — a material produced through a proprietary metallurgical process — and limiting production to just 18 examples worldwide.

That number — 18 — tells you almost everything about where Spagni's collecting instincts sit. This is someone who operates in systems built on scarcity and cryptographic exclusivity for a living, and his watch choice reflects that same logic applied to physical objects. The Astronomia Black Gold is not a dress watch or a tool watch; it is closer to a kinetic sculpture worn on the wrist, and in a collection of just one confirmed sighting, it sets a high baseline for what may follow.