Real Watch Collectors: Tim Mancuso on Rolex and the Royal Oak He Still Can’t Buy

Tim Mancuso’s collection makes no sense, and he knows it. Petite platinum Cartier Tanks sit alongside Ulysse Nardin Freaks, a Patek 5327G perpetual calendar shares space with a £400 Studio Underd0g. What connects them is a refusal to buy for recognition. A lesson learned somewhere between the Rolex Yacht-Master that took the road rash meant for his hand in Phuket, and the client who patted him on the shoulder and told him that one day he’d get a real watch. He’s owned Journes, Nautiluses and Mosers. He has never owned an Audemars Piguet, and he’ll explain exactly why.

Can you remember the exact moment you realised watches were going to be more than just a passing interest?

I can remember the exact day. It would have been 13th October 2016, my third anniversary. I was in San Francisco, and that was the first time I, with my wife, got a Rolex. It was a Yacht-Master with a champagne dial on a two-tone bracelet. I still have it to this day. It is literally one of my favourite things.

Before that, I was getting into watches, but I had like a Burberry Quartz and some other lower end ones. I was in finance, so I knew I needed something on the wrist. But the moment I bought that Rolex, the pride of success and accomplishment, I knew it wasn’t going to be my last. I knew this was going to be something I took crazy serious.

If I could go back, I’d be like, “get the Daytona! Get the Daytona!” But I didn’t. I got the one that I thought was the most emblematic of what a Rolex should be at that time. I’m wearing this with a suit, so I needed something a little dressier, but still a little sporty. And the Yacht-Master fit that perfectly.

Once I made that over $10,000 purchase, that was when I fully committed – and full disclosure, my wife made the purchase as an anniversary gift. She deserves the credit.

Which watch in your collection has the best story behind it?

Honestly, that Yacht-Master saved me. My wife and I were leaving Phuket on a motorbike. I hadn’t ridden in forever and rented one like an idiot. She’s on the back and I didn’t tell her to lean, so first turn, the very first – the bike slides right out from under me. Thank God we put helmets on. She goes over the top and I get caught on the bottom. She ended up getting a pretty bad concussion, but my left hand was on the ground and scraped along the ground. The skin came off but my watch bracelet took the brunt of it; it’s the only thing that stopped me getting properly de-gloved! I never buffed it out so you can still see the road rash on my Yacht-Master bracelet today.

We left the scene and I had tattered jeans, basically in my underwear, bleeding from my legs, it was pretty bad. Without my Rolex though it could have been a lot worse. By the way, that was the last time I rode a motorcycle.

Then there was my Patek 5327G, a perpetual calendar. It’s a grand complication and the first Patek I ever bought. So, I go into a client’s house wearing this watch and I’m proud as **** right? I’m beaming, I think I’m the man. The guy’s wearing a Sub and he goes, ‘what watch is that?’ I tell him and he goes, ‘So it’s not a Rolex?’ He patted me on the shoulder and very seriously said, ‘One day you’ll get a Rolex.’ That hurt.

Otherwise, my Omega Seamaster 300M has too many good stories behind it to name. I’ve worn it through the jungles of Africa, when I climbed Everest; I wore it when I went to the Arctic. I’ve done amazing things with it – and it still doesn’t have a scratch on the bezel. It’s also my most accurate watch by a mile.

Is there a watch you regret selling or passing on, and why?

God yeah, every single Nautilus I could have bought. I also had a chance to buy a Philippe Dufour at a very reasonable price. It was a lot of money at the time but a lot less than it’s worth now! The biggest watch I regret passing up though was an F.P. Journe Chronomètre Bleu. At the time (in 2022) I was offered it for $55,000, below cost. Now it’s what, closer to $200,000?

What I don’t regret is selling watches. I sometimes miss my old Vacheron Overseas and a Lange 1815 Annual Calendar in rose gold that was beautiful, but watches I’ve sold were either traded for another watch or sold at a time when I needed money for something else. Or I just thought I’ve worn it enough. I’ve got what I can get out of it. Let somebody else enjoy it.

If your collection could say something about you as a person, what would it say?

That I’m insane. It’s kind of all over the place. I have petite platinum Cartier Tanks, and I have gigantic Ulysse Nardin Freaks. There’s not really a coherent theme; I just buy what I like. So, there’s brands like Cartier, Rolex, Omega, but then there’s brands like Moser and UN and Studio Underd0g and Christopher Ward. I have a Chronoswiss Purple Rain, one of 30, with a white lume strap. Does it make sense? No. But I love watches that are visually captivating.

What do you look for in a watch?

Stage presence. I appreciate movements and complexity. I’m a watch geek, but at this point in my journey I look for stuff that grabs me. It needs to have something special.

I’ll give you a great example, two watches, completely different. One is a Ulysse Nardin Freak with a green enamel guilloche dial in titanium, a Bucherer limited edition. The other is a Rolex but not your typical Rolex: the celebration dial. Why? This is like the anti-Rolex Rolex. Rolex don’t do things like this – or didn’t at least. Watch lovers know what it is, but nobody else. I’m the guy wearing a Rolex nobody believes is a Rolex. You don’t even get the clout for that.

Is there one watch you own that other collectors don’t “get,” but you absolutely love?

There’s the celebration dial of course, it’s universally panned by Rolex purists. But I’d say – and I know this sounds a little douchey – there’s a bit of jealousy there. Sour grapes because they didn’t get it and you did.

But I also have a couple of Mosers that are really striking – including the red dial Moser that even Edouard Meylan doesn’t like. He said he only made it because of his father. It’s one of 20, with a red dial and a tourbillon, and red dials are always polarising. A lot of people just don’t like them.

The Moser, a lot of people get when they see it on my wrist, but I’ll also wear a small platinum Cartier. I’m over six feet and 200lbs. A lot of my guys are like, ‘dude, you know, you were just wearing a Meteorite Daytona. What are you doing wearing that?’ I just think it’s classic Cartier. It’s not that people don’t get the watch; it’s that they don’t get it on me.

If you had to focus on one brand only, which would it be and why?

It would be Rolex, and here’s why: Rolex is the tide that lifts all boats. And if you don’t want to admit that in the watch world, I think you’re lying to yourself. They’re over 30% of the market. They’re the most known. They’re one of the most recognisable brands in the world in any field. They have a history. They make sports watches as good or better than anybody else in the world. They still make dress watches. Their catalogue is timeless. It’s not exactly over the top, but they do make some crazy pieces. There’re meteorite dials, bubbles, puzzle pieces. There’re grails out there. There are off-catalogue ruby bezels, ruby indexes, sapphires and rainbows. There’s craziness in there. You have 1980s Day-Dates, Gordon Gekko style; you have ’90s Tony Soprano style. There are eras to Rolex. And as silly as it sounds, if it was good enough for Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and guys like that, then yeah man, I can live with that.

What would your younger collector-self be shocked to learn about your current collection?

Here’s what he’d be the most shocked. Ready? Ten years ago, Tim would never have believed that I would have the opportunity to get some of the watches I have. Not that I just have them, but the opportunity. And taking that further, the social life I’ve built thanks to watches. I’ve made a lot of inroads in the watch world. I do watch events. I run a prestigious WhatsApp group that’s getting crazy. I’ve made friends from the influencer side to actual celebrities through my watch group. I have my core group of friends, like my ‘friend’ friends and they’re all watch people. So, the value to my life outside of watches has increased more than I could have fathomed. The best people I know and the people I’m closest with in the world are all people I’ve met through watches. I still have maybe one or two college high school friends, and even those guys, it’s not bad, we just don’t talk as much. The people I communicate with on a daily basis are my watch friends. Young Tim would never have expected that.

If you had to start over tomorrow with no watches, how would you rebuild your collection?

I would go after the pieces that I really wanted, not the ones that I thought were going to get me the most recognition in the watch space. I’d still get some of the big ones, but the Studio Underd0gs, the Mr. Joneses, those make me smile. Three years ago, I might have been a little embarrassed to wear a $500 watch to a meet-up, like, uh-oh, they won’t take me seriously. I won’t look as cool or as knowledgeable. I’ll look poor. Now I just wouldn’t give a **** about that. I wouldn’t care.

What is your ultimate grail watch?

I’m lucky enough to have bought two of what I thought would be grail watches, but there’s a strange one I’ve not managed to get yet. Let me give it to you. Ready? The AP Royal Oak.

It’s not a grail because of money or even exclusivity, but because when I first got into watches, after I got into Rolex, I thought the kind of the mountain, the best watch in the world was the Royal Oak. I thought it was iconic, saved the Swiss watch industry, and that the $20,000 price at the time was insane. But to this day I’ve still never owned an AP. I’ve owned myriad Nautiluses, Rolexes, Mosers, UNs, Journes, but not the classic Royal Oak.

The reason though is simple: I’ve not had an authorised AP dealer offer me one without trying to bundle in Code 11:59s, Offshores, and all this crap I don’t want. I just want a black, green or blue 41mm Royal Oak stainless steel, I’m not asking for the moon. And every single time there’s games. ‘Oh, what you really want is this gold jumbo tourbillon for $170,000’. I refuse to play at this point.

I’d still buy one. There’s going to be some inner younger Tim that will be complete when he gets a Royal Oak. But I want to get one the right way, from Audemars Piguet. I don’t want to get it second hand; I don’t want to get it on the grey market. I want to start my relationship with the brand with the watch I want – and if you’re telling me your stainless steel watches are unobtainium, then I’m saying something’s horribly wrong.