Conor McGregor’s baseball pitch showed that he genuinely cares about watches

Luke Benedictus

Conor McGregor is many things, but he’s not much of a pitcher. On Tuesday night he stepped up to the mound before the Chicago Cubs met the Minnesota Twins and joined the long list of celebrities apparently unable to throw a baseball in a straight line. As expected for a former UFC champ, his pitch was full of power but, much like McGregor himself, embarrassingly low on self-control. The baseball sailed miles wide of the home plate before bouncing into the perimeter wall.

From a Time+Tide perspective, however, the incident was revealing as McGregor quickly pivoted from his duff throw to discuss the damage that it did to the bracelet on, what looks to be, his Patek Philippe Rose Gold Nautilus 5980/1R-001.

“The gold bar of Patek almost came flying off me it was that fast and powerful.” he wrote. ” I’d take it back to @patekphilippe for adjusting but this watch is now discontinued. A rare. I Bought for 80k in Weirs jeweler of Ireland and today it is worth close to 500k. And going up.” 

The 5980 is Patek’s Nautilus Chrono that was released with a solid rose gold bracelet in 2013. If it is indeed that watch, there’s no official word on it being discontinued (although speculation is rife on various watch forums that it has been). But what’s more notable here is McGregor’s immediate discussion of the watch and its value.

His lacklustre pitch was compared to a similarly hapless attempt by 50 Cent. In characteristic form, McGregor feigned anger at the comparison. But he also took a moment to zero in and comment on the rapper’s watch. “Fifty has a nice hublot too. Big Bang.”

What this post shows is that this is a guy who cares about watches. He takes the time to notice people’s timepieces and appraise them accordingly. It’s well known that the Irish fighter has a wildly expensive collection. But given some of his more, er, questionable choices – like when he dropped $1.5m USD on the Jacob & Co. Rasputin Diamond Erotic Minute Repeater Watch – that discernment hasn’t always been apparent.

His latest tirade reveals that – love him or loathe him – Conor McGregor is a genuine watch guy. Sure, it may be because wristwear is just another form of conspicuous oneupmanship that he can use to berate all and sundry. But he’s clearly got his eye in all the same. The Notorious is very much in the loupe.