The most expensive watches of the world’s 7 richest billionaires, ranked: from Warren Buffett’s Rolex and Elon Musk’s Richard Mille, to Bernard Arnault’s Patek Philippe and Jeff Bezos’ Ulysse Nardin
- Warren Buffett and Mexico’s Carlos Slim both favour Rolexes, with the former choosing the ‘President Rolex’ worn by former US leaders from Donald Trump to Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford
- Bill Gates is known for his modest US$50 Casio, but once wore a Tag Heuer Professional 2000 to a conference in the Philippines, which he gave away to the attendee guessing closest to its value
With such large fortunes at their disposal, they can afford to buy the most expensive personal items the world has to offer – and that includes watches, of course.
While the seven men on this list indeed opt for premium watchmakers, their choices may surprise you. So, which of the world’s seven richest billionaires appears to have splashed the most cash on wrist candy?
7. Bill Gates – Tag Heuer Professional 2000 (US$1,400)
For many years the world’s richest person, Bill Gates is nevertheless known for being a humble sort, sporting a modest US$50 Casio most of the time. When it comes to luxury watches, he has been spotted wearing a Tag Heuer Professional 2000 at a conference in the Philippines – but not for long. Watch Ranker reports that Gates encouraged the conference audience to guess the watch’s price, and when one participant came closest with his guess of US$600 (it’s actually worth US$1,400), the Microsoft founder gifted it to him.
The watch has a stainless steel case and bracelet, and a blue dial with steel hands and luminous hour markers. It also has a unidirectional rotating bezel with Arabic numerals at 12 o’clock. Reportedly inspired by Formula One racing, the watch is also water resistant to 200 metres, making it ideal for swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving. The success of the 2000 series later led Tag Heuer to produce the 3000, 4000 and 6000 series.
6. Jeff Bezos – Ulysse Nardin Dual Time (US$12,900)
The Amazon founder’s watch of choice isn’t a particularly obvious or popular one, but he’s reportedly been wearing the Ulysse Nardin Dual Time for years.
The 42mm watch has a polished stainless-steel case and bracelet as well as a crisp silver dial with blue sub-dials and luminous hands and hour markers. It uses an in-house Swiss calibre UN-24 automatic movement with 42 hours of power reserve and features GMT functions as well as water resistance up to 100 metres. The discontinued model is worth US$12,900, Business Insider estimated.