Putin Hands Over His Luxury Watch
Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Chandra Coleman in Other Luxury Watches
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was put in a position a few days ago of looking bad in front of the press or holding onto his Blancpain watch. As any good politician would do, he chose to smile in front of the cameras and look good; this meant handing over one of the many Swiss made luxury watches that he owns. Viktor Zagaevsky, a Russian metalworker at an arms factory in the town of Tula was the lucky recipient. He boldly asked Putin to give him something that would serve as a “souvenir” of the meeting Putin had just held at the factory. Caught off-guard, Putin answered that he had nothing to give, and when Zagaevsky suggested “maybe your watch”, Putin didn’t have much choice.
The price of the Blancpain watch was about 5,500 Euros, a little over $8,000 U.S. dollars and about what the average Russian family makes in a year.
Mr. Putin’s love of luxury watches is a known fact and he usually wears his watches on his right hand, this may be because he’s left-handed or it may just be to be different. Either way, his choices of luxury watches over the years always ignite a shopping frenzy among the Russian elite that want the same watch as the Prime Minister.
The most expensive luxury watch that Putin has been spotted wearing is a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar valued at 35,000 Euros, which is about $51,500 dollars.
However, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is also passionate about high end watches, beats Putin by wearing the most expensive among different heads of state; a Constantin Vacheron valued at $540,000. Ex President Bush on the other hand, wore a $50 Timex Indiglo watch.
This week’s “watch incident” marks the second watch that Putin has given up. Last month is what was said to be a propaganda move by the Kremlin; Putin “spontaneously” removed his watch and gave it to the poor son of a shepherd in Siberia.
The moral of the story: choose what you wear and where you wear it carefully.
