The Unlikely Watch Collector: Elvis Presley
The King still rocks. And his watches still tock.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
Almost 50 years after his death in August of 1977, Elvis Presley is still a cultural touchstone. Earlier this year, Australian director Baz Luhrmann released a documentary about the singer (four years after filming the musical biography Elvis starring Austin Butler). Even wee children are familiar with Elvis’ pop persona thanks to Disney’s Lilo and Stitch.
Presley also invented the idea of the pop star as a visual icon. Even people unfamiliar with his backstory, his movies, or even his music could easily recognize him in a police lineup. He lived large, as noted in his rhinestone-covered stage costumes and the colorful decor of his mansion, Graceland.
He also loved watches and was rarely photographed without a watch on his wrist. Many were gifts, but he also lavished watches on friends and associates.
Most importantly for this story, Presley’s timepieces were equally eclectic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he probably owned about 100 watches in his lifetime. We can’t account for every one of them, but we can talk about five of the most important pieces in his eclectic collection.
Omega Constellation
We tried. We researched. We squinted at a thousand online images, but we couldn’t figure out what Presley’s first watch was. But we do know that one of the most iconic watches associated with Elvis’ early years was the circa 1960 Omega Constellation he wore during his Army years (1958 to 1960).
While not exactly built to military specifications, Omega introduced the Constellation in 1952 as a range of high-performance dress watches, and it remains a part of the catalog today. In fact, Omega just introduced the new Constellation Observatory collection, which pays tribute to the mid-century design language of its Elvis-era version.
Throughout his military service in the US Army, Elvis was often photographed wearing a circa-1960 black-dialed watch. Eventually, Presley gifted the watch to musician and member of the “Memphis Mafia,” Charlie Hodge.
This watch can be considered the first big step in Presley’s horological evolution. While his later acquisitions are more over-the-top, this watch is quite elegant with its pink-gold-capped stainless-steel case and black dial featuring a crosshair division with a date window at 3 o’clock, applied gold hour indices with luminous inserts, gold text, and pink-gold dauphine hands.
Powered by a Caliber 504 manual-winding chronometer movement with a gold decagonal crown and a stainless-steel caseback with a pink-gold-plated Constellation motif at center, this timepiece came up for auction at Antiquorum in 2012, selling for $52,500.
Tiffany Omega
In February 1961, Presley’s record label RCA Records arranged an event to celebrate his groundbreaking milestone of selling 75 million records. At the shindig, Elvis was presented with a commemorative plaque and a Tiffany-signed Omega. The caseback of this 18k while gold watch was inscribed, “To Elvis, 75 Million Records, RCA Victor, 12-25-60.”
While the watch was powered by the robust manually wound Omega caliber 510, it’s safe to say that Presley was more impressed by the 44 brilliant-cut diamonds in its bezel. So, too, are modern-day collectors, as this watch made headlines in 2018 when Phillips sold it at auction for $1.8 million, which, at that time, was a record for an Omega watch.
According to the auction catalog, this timepiece also came with some insight into Presley’s gifting style: The uncle of the cosigner of this lot mentioned that he liked the King’s watch, so Elvis proposed a trade, swapping his diamond-studded Omega for the man’s diamond-studded Hamilton.
Corum Buckingham
On the soundtrack of the 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock, Elvis crooned the tune “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care.” Three years later, he bucked convention and expressed an affinity for non-round watch cases by purchasing an oversized square 18-karat yellow gold Corum Buckingham.
This timepiece wore more like a piece of jewelry and became one of Presley’s favorites after his active military service ended in 1960. The watch, with a square hobnail dial, black hands, and a cabochon crown, was later given to his personal valet Richard Daivs, who was credited with purchasing much of the King’s 1960s wardrobe.
According to a statement from Davis: “One day Elvis took the watch off his wrist and said there was something wrong with the back of it. I turned it over, and Elvis had inscribed it to me – he said, ‘Well, I guess it’s yours now.’” This watch sold by Antiquorum in 2018 for $22,500.
Hamilton Ventura
Elvis may have swapped his Tiffany Omega for a Hamilton Ventura, but it wasn’t his first Ventura. The asymmetric timepiece became forever linked with Presley when he wore one in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii.
He wore other watches in movies (like the Rolex Submariner in 1962’s Girls! Girls! Girls!), but something about the Ventura’s space-age shape led him to champion it on screen. So much so, in fact, that he bought many variants over the years, frequently handing them out like party favors to members of his entourage.
Like Elvis, the Ventura was a groundbreaker. Launched in 1957, it is considered the world’s first electric watch to reach the market (Elgin and Lip had built prototypes, but Hamilton pipped them to the post). The movement – the Caliber 500 – used a battery, magnets, and an electric coil rather than a traditional mechanical mainspring to drive the gear train and move the hands.
Even without the electrical innovation, the Ventura was iconic for its curvilinear case, conceived by American car designer Richard Arbib. Modern Ventura models have left the electronics behind, but the vibe of the retro futuristic timepiece lives on in quartz and mechanical editions.
Rolex King Midas
Of course, the King had a Rolex King Midas in his watch box!
Presley’s model, Ref. 9630, was limited to 1,000 pieces and was presented to Elvis as a token of appreciation from the Houston Livestock Show Officers for playing six consecutive sold-out concerts in 1970 at the Houston Astrodome.
Fun Fact: In 1970, a Rolex Day-Date retailed for $1,825, while a King Midas retailed for $2,500, making the King Midas the most expensive Rolex on the market at the time.
Featuring an angular solid 18K case and integrated bracelet, the King Midas looked more like a big bracelet than a watch – all the better to match the gold chains and medallions hanging around his neck. What makes this watch even more exciting is that it bears battle scars, such as a water-damaged dial, inflicted by Presley himself.
Moreover, although the Hamilton Ventura is nicknamed “the Elvis Watch,” the King Midas was like Presley in timepiece form. In fact, the King’s King Midas, numbered 343 of 1,000, is a rare example of a timepiece that he never gifted to anyone and is on permanent display at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, sitting in a vitrine alongside a Ventura, a gun, a “Taking Care of Business” lightning bolt pin, and a pair of his emblematic aviator sunglasses.
(Front image © Alfred Wertheimer / Getty Images)