• Tom Brady auctioned 21 pieces from his luxury watch collection at Sotheby's on Tuesday.
• His watch collection, which fetched $4.6 million, included pieces from Rolex and Audemars Piguet.
• Brady's Rolex Daytona Paul Newman 'John Player Special' sold for $1.14 million.

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is passionate about more than just football — he also has an extensive luxury watch collection.

Or, he used to.

On December 10, the retired 15-time ProBowler auctioned 21 of his watches at Sotheby's, along with 20 other "treasures" from his football career.

His whole collection brought in more than $9 million, with the watches selling for a total of $4.6 million.

"Watches were really the main story and drew the most value," WatchGuys CEO Robertino Altieri told Business Insider.

The luxury watch industry has experienced major fluctuations in recent years. Following a spike in interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry faced a period of decline.

The overall market index is down 5.1% from 2023, per WatchCharts data from December 9, but the success of Brady's auction should help the industry, Altieri said.

"Seeing Tom Brady attach watches to the sports world as well — it's definitely huge," he added.

Brady's auction also reflects the trend of rebooting the luxury resale market through celebrity partnerships. In June 2024, for example, Sotheby's auctioned 11 watches from Sylvester Stallone's personal collection, including his Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime which sold for $5.4 million.

From a custom Audemars Piguet to the final jersey Brady wore at the University of Michigan, here's a peek at some of the items sold at Sotheby's.

The most expensive watch sold was the Rolex Daytona Paul Newman 'John Player Special.' It went for $1.14 million.

Brady wore the vintage timepiece to the New England Patriots' 2023 home opener, where team owner Robert Kraft famously announced that he'd be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame the following June.

According to Sotheby's, the watch was "named after the legendary 1970s Formula 1 livery, because of its black and gold 'Paul Newman' dial" and is "exceedingly rare" due to very small production quantities.

"Beyond its scarcity, the watch radiates an undeniable allure, enhanced by its striking black-and-gold combination and its connection to a golden era of Formula 1," said Richard Lopez, Sotheby's senior specialist for watches.

Brady's custom Audemars Piguet sold for $720,000.

This Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon by Audemars Piguet features several nods to Brady, including his name set with calibré-cut and baguette diamonds, the number seven in Roman numerals as a nod to his record Super Bowl wins, and his signature on the rotor, according to Sotheby's.

The watch is made of white gold and also includes "a baguette diamond-set bezel," according to Sotheby's.

Brady wore the watch during his May 2024 Netflix special, "The Greatest Roast of All Time: The Roast of Tom Brady."

Sotheby's previously estimated the watch was worth between $400,000 and $800,000, but Altieri said he'd expected it to exceed $1 million.

"It's not often that brands make a piece unique for someone," he said.

The IWC Pilot's Watch Top Gun Edition "SFTI" exceeded expectations, selling for $42,000.

The IWC Top Gun Edition "SFTI" was estimated by Sotheby's to go for a maximum of $10,000. Instead, it sold for $42,000, more than four times its market value.

"That was a really strong indicator just off the bat that more affordable pieces would go for higher numbers," Altieri said.

"Affordable," in this case, refers to their market value; IWC watches, for example, usually retail for less than $20,000, but significantly exceeded that number at the auction.

Brady famously wore this watch while celebrating at the 2021 Super Bowl boat parade in Tampa Bay after his seventh and final championship win.

Another piece that exceeded expectations was the Rolex 'Batman,' which sold for $60,000.

Similar to the IWCs on auction, the Rolex 'Batman' performed well above its market value.

Altieri said the model's market value is $17,000, "but right away the bid went 50, 55, and then it sold for 60."

But while IWC soared, Richard Mille pieces like the 35-03 "Baby Nadal" sold at market value for $384,000.

This collaboration between Richard Mille and 22-time Grand Slam singles champion Rafael Nadal is best known for its innovative "butterfly rotor."

For those not well-versed in watches, a rotor is a small weight within the watch that swings as the wearer moves, generating energy that winds and powers the watch.

What's different about the "butterfly rotor," according to Richard Mille, is that it "offers the wearer the possibility of varying the rotor geometry by themselves," allowing them to engage in various activities like sports without causing any damage or excessive winding.

Other figures who've worn pieces from Richard Mille and Nadal's collaborations include Jay-Z and Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdiger.

Altieri said the watches that "have a lot of hype in today's market" and "attract a lot of media," like a Richard Mille or an Audemars Piguet, didn't perform as well at the auction as he would've expected.

"You would think because it's Tom Brady's name — just like the IWCs and the Batman — it would at least go for double, but it didn't," he said.

Sotheby's previously estimated the piece would sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.

His Patek Philippe TBXII Grand Comp sold for $264,000.

Sotheby's estimated that this Patek Philippe pocket watch, retailed by Tiffany & Co., would sell for between $200,000 and $400,000.

It ultimately sold for closer to the lower end of its estimate at $264,000, which surprised Altieri.

"I thought there was some potential of something like this coming back into fashion, but it's really a bigger pocket watch. It didn't hit the expectation that I thought," he said.

Per Sotheby's, the "yellow gold open-faced watch from 1917 is a rare example" of the brand's minute repeater, which was first introduced in 1845.

Other items from Brady's football career were auctioned. The jersey he wore in his final game at the University of Michigan sold for $792,000.

In addition to luxury watches, Tom Brady and Sotheby's also auctioned memorable pieces from his playing career.

The best-selling item from his career was the jersey he wore in his final game with the University of Michigan (pictured above), which was estimated to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000, and ultimately sold for $792,000.

Other items included were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey he wore when he broke the NFL's passing yards record, his NFL Combine shirt, and a helmet worn during his last season in the NFL.

"The collection is truly unparalleled; the stories they tell, the authenticity they embody, and their historical significance elevate them beyond mere collectibles," Brahm Wachter, Sotheby's head of modern collectibles, said in October. "These items are genuine pieces of sports history."

• Patek Philippe watches are some of the most coveted in the world.
• That's because they're high in quality and have industry-leading features.
• Watch experts said that buying one requires lots of money, strong social skills, and patience.

Phil Reid, a luxury watch seller based in London, first came across Patek Philippe timepieces "on the back of a magazine."

"No one in my family had a Patek; I didn't come from that sort of wealth," the 30-year-old said, "but they'd be on billboards and in magazines. The marketing would talk about how you'd buy a Patek and pass it down generation to generation. That stuck with me."

By 1845, the Swiss brand, founded six years earlier, had patented key watch features like keyless winding and hand-setting systems, attracting its earliest fans, who included iconic figures like Queen Victoria.

Ever since, it's been known for its status-symbol watches, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when bought directly from the brand or millions each on the resale market.

Still, getting one of the timepieces on your wrist is a tricky task, equivalent to buying a Birkin or Kelly handbag from Hermes.

Reid and Craig Karger, another watch industry professional, told Business Insider that purchasing a Patek Philippe timepiece typically requires patience, a solid relationship with an authorized sales associate, and a lot of money.

"Patek kind of has a stepping stone system to getting the watches that you want," Reid said.

Here's what that path can look like.

Where can you buy a Patek Philippe watch?

Karger, a former lawyer who now runs a publication called Wrist Enthusiast, said that Patek Philippe "generally doesn't own their own stores."

Aside from a handful of boutiques spread across cities like Miami and Lisbon, the Swiss brand sells its products through authorized retailers worldwide. Watches of Switzerland and Bucherer are two popular examples.

Karger recently visited the former to see if he could buy the brand's new Cubitus watch off the shelf. Spoiler alert: He couldn't.

At such retailers, the two experts said you typically need to form a relationship with a sales associate and purchase from them regularly.

"You could buy Rolex. You could buy Cartier. You could buy IWC, whatever the store has, but you're going to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with them — and probably more — before they start offering you something that's on the very rare side," Karger said.

That's only the first step.

After developing a purchase history of various watches, you'd likely be introduced to Patek Philippe's classic pieces. These variations are luxurious, of course, but not as highly in demand as other Patek watches, like those in the Nautilus and Aquanaut families.

Still, Reid added, completing that step is no small feat. He said these simpler pieces are offered "almost as a privilege," and buying one is another necessary step to being offered more popular styles.

"If you're really buddy-buddy with the salespeople or if you are an influencer or a celebrity, maybe you can bypass some of these steps," Reid said, "but Patek is probably the strictest amongst all the brands with who they allocate watches to."

"They're very, very selective, very careful," he continued. "They will vet everybody meticulously to make sure that they don't resell."

Representatives for Patek Philippe did not respond to a request for comment from BI on its sales processes.

Pay your dues, or pay a hefty premium — the choice is yours

If buying directly from Patek Philippe sounds too daunting, there's always the secondary market. That's where many Patek pieces end up, Karger said.

Some shoppers find buying resale largely beneficial; they can find rare watches and discontinued pieces and save time and money.

"If you have somebody that doesn't want to put in two or three years and spend $50,000 to $100,000 on stuff that they don't want, they can come to businesses like mine," Reid said.

On the flip side, you have to be prepared to pay premium prices.

"Some watches may retail for $50,000 but sell for $150,000 on the secondary market," Krager said. "As long as you're willing to pay that, you can get it leave with it on your wrist that day."

The new Cubitus design is a perfect example. While Patek Philippe's suggested retail price ranges between $41,240 and $88,380 each, the pieces are currently on the resale market for between $127,500 and $238,000 each.

Reaching the level of Patek Philippe

When collectors, jewelers, and other fans discuss Patek Philippe watches, awe almost always enters their voices.

The luxury brand "stands above the likes of Rolex and Audemars Piguet, just because of their quality," Reid said, adding that other high-end watches have "service issues" and don't last as long as they should. "I've never really heard anybody have issues when they've bought a Patex Philippe watch."

Variety also plays a huge role in the appeal of Patek watches.

"As a luxury brand, it's kind of different from everyone else," Krager said of Patek Philippe. "They make something that could fulfill any kind of itch you have at that time — whether it's a sports watch or something crazy with really high-end complications."

But maybe the most attractive quality to shoppers is that owning one is still extremely rare, no matter how many Patek watches are on the resale market. Both Reid and Krager, for example, have yet to have Patek pieces in their personal collections.

But if you are one of the lucky ones who's bought a Patek directly from the brand? You basically got a two-for-one deal: a luxury watch and the bragging rights to say you bought one of the most exclusive offers in fashion.