Jay Leno on Passion for Collecting Cars and Wristwatches

Jay Leno made his name as a comedian and host of the long-running The Tonight Show. At the age of 75, he still does hundreds of stand-up gigs every year but spends most of his time on his other passion, his car collection. Hidden away in anonymous warehouses in Burbank, California, his collection totals nearly 200 cars and almost as many motorcycles, well-known as Jay Leno’s Garage.

When I first met him, it was clear that Leno is one of the most modest and down-to-earth people you could ever meet. That seems a real contrast to his impressive car collection, but when you talk to him about his cars, it all becomes clear.

Leno grew up in rural New England, where it was quite common for people to abandon vehicles. He would come across broken cars in a field, which would eventually rot or someone would pull them out to save or use for parts. “We found a little Renault 4CV that someone had left and we were kids, so we rode it around the backyard while my mother watched through the kitchen window,” he says. “It was fairly common and boys are just expected to like mechanical things, it was just something you did when you grew up in a rural area where there were always broken tractors or snowmobiles that needed to be fixed. That’s what we would do every day after school, drive this car around and fix things. I guess it springs from that, although this is a slightly bigger version.”

Jay Leno’s Workshop

His parents weren’t into cars; his dad was more into baseball and when he would refer to Cadillac as the Rolls-Royce of cars, young Leno would argue that it can’t be, because it’s a Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce is a completely separate brand. His car knowledge at the time came mainly from magazines, but it was an era when there was great excitement every September when the annual new car registrations would happen and Leno would start to see new models on the streets. That excitement has never left him, neither has his passion for quality.

“As you get older you begin to understand what defines the word quality, why certain things are better made and what materials have been used and then you tend to collect those. I just buy what I like, after all, I came from a small town where any car that had less than four doors might as well have been a Ferrari.”

It’s All About the Story

Hudson Hornet

It is this fascination that means Leno knows the story of every car he owns and how each is put together, even back to his 1909 Detroit Electric car, which still achieves 88 miles of driving range today.

“When the Baker Electric came out, most people didn’t even have electricity in their homes and here was a car with electric lights,” says Leno. “It doesn’t sound particularly impressive now, but back in the day that was unbelievable. It was a high-tech piece of equipment and although my Detroit Electric was completely rusted out when I bought it, the motor was fine, I didn’t have to do anything to it, the engineering is pretty amazing.”

It’s not just the story of how a car is put together though, but the story of its ownership. One of his favourites is a Hudson that he bought from a woman in her nineties. He loves the brand for its engineering and NASCAR history, but this particular car was in the same family for decades before it was offered to him. He restored it and took it back to the lady who put her kids in the back, who were in their seventies, and they went for a drive, telling stories of all the adventures they had in the car. Every time he gets in that car and starts it, it makes him smile.

Lincoln Continental

The same is true of a 1966 Lincoln four-door convertible, which belonged to a woman who was Marilyn Monroe’s roommate. She drove the car 1,000 miles a year to go to the Beverley Hills Country Club or the hairdresser and when she was too old to drive, she wanted the car to go to a good home. A movie producer in his 90s had a 1967 Chrysler Imperial along with every part he would need if it was damaged. Leno bought the lot. It’s all about the characters, both people and cars.

“The cars I tend to collect, I get from guys like me,” he says. “They never had kids and their car was their whole life. They want them to go to a good home and nobody wants to see something they sold you show up on a classic car website for three times the amount, so I usually pay a bit more, but I tend to get a really good example.”

From Old to New

Bugatti collection

Leno has a real passion for British cars and while he has everything from MG to Bugatti, it’s not just old cars that grab his attention. He hasn’t had a great experience with Ferrari, although he loves the cars from Maranello, but just as he likes a car with a story, he has a passion for good service too.

When he bought a Porsche Carrera GT it arrived on a truck with two mechanics who showed him how it worked and when he purchased his first McLaren, he was amazed that the salespeople actually talked him out of options that he didn’t need. Today, he has a number of McLarens, including a P1, the new W1 and the iconic F1, a car which has significantly increased in value since he bought it, but he’s not in it for the money.

“If you’re a true collector, you buy them because you like them,” he says. “It makes you look smart if it goes up in value, but you don’t buy it as an investment, if you like it you buy it and if it goes down in value that’s okay because at least you still like it.”

From Cars to Watches

Jay Leno owns a Seiko SLQ007 Sportura, image credit: Sotheby’s

It’s the same with his watches, which currently number over 100 in his collection, including his first Seiko, which he still wears to time his gigs, and his first premium watch, a Jaeger-LeCoultre, but there’s one brand he really relates to.

“I like A. Lange & Söhne because they are incredibly well made watches, I mean fanatically. Every watch they make, they build and then take it apart completely and put it back together again, just to make sure they did it right the first time, even with their least expensive model.

“It’s that German thing of craftsmanship, combining horology with classic styling,” he says. “I’m not a fan of modern watches made out of ceramic that look like bathroom scales on your wrist, these giant things. I like watches to be clear and when you look closely you go, oh my gosh, look at this.

“I just bought the new single hand Breguet, which is a fascinating watch, just because of the heritage and Abraham Breguet. I find it a fascinating piece of horology and when you break it down to its simplest, fewest amount of parts, it’s the complete opposite to a Lange, but I like every extreme.”

Whether it’s the story of a car or a watch, or that childhood fascination with how something is made, Leno has turned his passion into his own story. It’s one that many collectors can probably relate to and one that should inspire the collectors of generations to come.

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