Politicians And Watches – What Do Their Watches Say About Them?

Top male politicians generally choose watches almost as carefully as they do wives. Take, for example, those three very short and very nouveau-riche autocrats, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who wear Patek Philippe, and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, who sports an extravagant Vacheron Constantin.

These are watches that declare, in an understated way, that their owner is far bigger, or at least more important, than he appears, and a man who has earned his right to quality.

Cameron, the millionaire Old Etonion of middling height, has no such insecurities. At the same time, he has something of Tony Blair’s ability to tune into the way voters are thinking. And if his bike-riding lost a touch of its environmental credibility once the camera panned back to reveal the limo cruising behind, the absence of an expensive watch, or any watch at all, does at least put him in tune with the austerity of debt-ridden Britain.

Austerity is everywhere these days, and even the luxury watch world has taken note, with simple, classic, even retro styles all the rage at the top end of the market as bling goes out of the window.

Even in the best of times, though, British politicians have generally understood that swanning around in ermine and pearls, and visibly expensive watches, does not go down well with an electorate still finely attuned to the subtle gradations of class. Peter Mandelson, proud owner of a Patek Philippe, is an exception that proves the rule.

So, Cameron’s predecessor, Gordon Brown, proudly displayed his Sekonda. And Tony Blair found displaying his Swatch an altogether less mockable gesture towards the egalitarian than faking Estuary vowels. Like Bill Clinton and George Bush before him, though, who sported Timexes in office but took a secret delight in more expensive timepieces, Tony Blair’s Swatch fling was not all it was cracked up to be.

When he left 10 Downing St., he took the glory of 12 watches with him, nine of them gifts from Silvio Berlusconi (out of 17 watches presented to him by the Italian premier, a man who clearly has a hard time with restraint). Cherie might have been caught this week selling one of them on eBay – a Locman Mare Titanium - for £98, but my guess is that this wasn’t about austerity. It was probably just one too many for the display case now nestling under the Blairs’ tree.