Kevin O’Leary vs. Andrew McUtchen: $10,000 watch buying challenge at Time+Tide NYC
Time+TideWhat happens when the king of Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary, a.k.a Mr Wonderful, walks into the Time+Tide NYC Discovery Studio with $10,000 and an opinion about everything? Pure watch television.
Kevin O’Leary — investor, self-confessed dial obsessive and newly minted horological force — faced off against Time+Tide founder Andrew McUtchen in a $10K watch buying challenge at 460 Broome Street, Soho. Same budget. Same store. One judge. Zero mercy.
The format: a reverse Shark Tank. Build the best collection you can from the floor of the Time+Tide NYC Discovery Studio, then pitch it to a single judge, Discovery Studio Watch Specialist Meighan, who holds all the power and none of the patience for ego.
Kevin arrived with conviction. Diversification is everything. Never buy the same dial twice. Never borrow money to buy a watch. Entry-level pieces are the gateway to a lifetime of collecting. He’s not wrong — and he’s annoyingly hard to argue with.
What unfolded was a genuinely electric tour through some of the most compelling watches the masses have yet to discover: Wren’s sandwich-dial diver, Awake’s enamel-kissed blue dress piece, Furlan Marri’s Disco Volante, Straum’s Jan Mayen, Studio Underdog’s column-wheel-driven burnt pizza chronograph, a seriously underestimated entry from Oak & Oscar, and much, much more.
Along the way, Kevin revealed the full story behind his one-of-a-kind ruby Rolex Daytona — an off-catalogue piece that came with a very specific condition from the CEO of Rolex Americas. There’s also a jaw-dropping aside about his F.P. Journe Chronometre Bleu, his role in Marty Supreme, and why anything under $1,000 might be the most important watch a collector ever buys.
Both collections had crossovers. Both had standouts. One had the edge. The winner? Watch to find out. Then tell us in the comments who you think got robbed.