This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here.
Kevin Hart likes watches he can relate to. “Small in stature, but big in ability, big in cadence, big in personality,” says the comedian and actor, whose collection includes more than 250 timepieces. And as far as Hart is concerned, the watch that best captures those qualities is Patek Philippe’s groundbreaking reference 5004—a watch so significant to him, he owns three versions. “It’s a treat for me when I choose to wear it,” says Hart, who’s sported the 5004 everywhere from the BET Awards to The Tonight Show. Hart has rarer and flashier watches in his arsenal, but his abiding love for the 5004 is proof of his nerd-level reverence for horological history.
Like so many collectors blessed with the income to support their obsession, Hart started slow—treating himself to a watch to celebrate a new movie or stand-up special—but found himself pulled ever deeper, eventually chasing rarities from hallowed brands like Patek and Audemars Piguet. “Once I got into that wheelhouse, I just couldn’t stop,” he says.
These days, rather than purchasing watches to mark moments in his story, Hart acquires them to further the story of his collection, approaching new timepieces with a historian’s eye. “It’s understanding the birth of a watch, the family that it’s coming from, or if it’s a transition point for a brand,” he says. That’s what makes the 5004 such a defining piece in Hart’s rotation.
When Patek Philippe debuted the model in 1994, it became the first serially produced watch to pair a perpetual calendar (displaying the day, date, and month accurately until the year 2100) with a split-seconds chronograph (akin to a stopwatch’s lap feature). More than just another time-telling machine, the 5004 marked a technical leap—and an important new chapter—in the already illustrious history of Patek. That history doesn’t come cheap: These days, precious-metal 5004s like Hart’s often sell for roughly $400,000 on the secondary market.
Few pieces express time with more grandeur: From within its compact 36.5-mm case, the 5004 is able to chart out the next 74 years without human intervention—an entire lifetime! That fits in perfectly with why Hart fell in love with watches: because of the way they make him feel time.
“I value my time,” he says. “I put a lot of time, energy, and effort into whatever I do.”
A true completist, Hart fell so hard for the 5004 that, after acquiring a coveted white gold example (around 140 are believed to exist) almost a decade ago, he’s gone on to pick up the model in nearly every metal available, securing examples in stainless steel and rose gold. (No surprise that when you have Hart’s watch cred and means, you start to make friends in the industry. Hart tells me that he knows about watches set to drop in 2028—and already has dibs on a few himself.)
As a man who’s well aware of time’s passage, Hart has a plan in place for his watches once he passes on. “[My kids] know, Daddy’s babies, they go to you,” he says. “You hold onto it forever. I would love for my kids to be able to say, ‘Wow, we have Dad’s pride and joy.’ ”
His generosity comes with only one stipulation: “Do not sell my shit.”
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