From owning no luxury watches to building a sizeable collection of rare and collectible timepieces over just a few months, Mark Zuckerberg has been bitten hard by the horology bug. However, the latest watch acquired by the Meta CEO has surprised many people. In a recent Instagram video by Zuckerberg to promote the new Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the centi-billionaire was spotted wearing a timepiece from the newly launched and highly controversial Patek Philippe collection.
This makes Zuckerberg the second celebrity watch collector to be seen wearing a Cubitus publicly; basketball legend Michael Jordan was the first one to be spotted rocking the squarish watch.
The watch seen on Zuck’s wrist is a Platinum Patek Philippe Cubitus Moonphase 5822P, which retails for around $88,000. The timepiece features a square-shaped 45mm case made from platinum. Housed inside is the caliber 240 PS CI J LU self-winding movement.
The beautifully finished movement is visible through the display caseback. The sunburst blue is horizontally embossed and has white gold applied baton-style hour markers with white luminescent coating. Interestingly, the first luxury watch bought by the Facebook founder was also a Patek Philippe, a $141,000 Grand Complication 5236P in platinum.
The Cubitus, Patek Philippe’s first new collection in 25 years, has been met with severe criticism from watch aficionados, who have ridiculed the iconic Swiss watchmaker for releasing a new watch that’s merely a squared-off version of the iconic Nautilus. The company’s president, Thierry Stern, has mocked the critics, claiming them to be haters who have never owned a Patek watch and never will.
Despite the negative reception, Cubitus watches have already begun to reach the secondary market with a huge premium. A two-tone Cubitus Ref. 5821/1AR, which has a retail price of $61,276, was recently sold online for $112,500. On the other hand, the platinum version bought by Zuckerberg has an average asking price of close to $180,000, which is crazy!