Ed Sheeran on the Watch That Changed His Life

In 2015, Ed Sheeran placed an order for a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 with the Tiffany & Co. wordmark stamped on the dial, an ultrarare variation of an already rare watch. It took five years for Sheeran to reach the top of the wait list, and the timepiece just happened to be delivered—by a courier and accompanying security guard—on the day the musician’s wife, Cherry, went into labor with the couple’s first child. So Sheeran did what any watch fanatic would: He brought a sizing kit with him to the hospital. Once there, Sheeran followed a tutorial on YouTube and used a tiny pair of pliers to carefully remove a few links so the Nautilus would hug his wrist just right. “All the pictures of me with my daughter for the first time are with this watch,” the 34-year-old told me recently, a hint of wistfulness in his voice.

Fate, destiny, excellent customer service—whatever you want to call it, the watch arrived at the perfect time in Sheeran’s life. As anyone serious about collecting these little wrist-worn machines can attest to, they often seem to have a will of their own. “Sometimes with watches like this that take ages to arrive, they always end up having some moment tied to them,” Sheeran said.

I spoke to Sheeran about the 5711 that he says “changed the trajectory of my life as a man,” getting into steel bracelets after John Mayer gave him a Rolex Daytona as a gift, and why being a watch snob is boring.

GQ: This is such a special watch that even you had to wait five years to get one.

Sheeran: Recently, Pateks have been way, way, way more gatekept and harder to get than they ever were. And maybe that’s because so many people want them now. But I remember the first time I went into Tiffany’s, you could just get them. They were just there, available. I bought an Aquanaut in store and walked away with it, but they’ve definitely gotten more and more difficult [to acquire] as time’s gone on.

But I basically said to Kelly [Yoch], who worked at Tiffany at the time in 2015, that I’d love a 5711. She was like, “Yeah, you and the rest of the world.” That ain’t an easy thing to get, because I really wanted to get it Tiffany stamped. So I basically went on a list and I forgot about it.

And then what I found cool about it was, it wasn’t like there was a scheduled day that it was going to turn up, and my wife was two weeks overdue. And as we were leaving for the hospital, this package turned up, and it was that watch. I brought it to the hospital, and all the pictures of me with my daughter for the first time are with this watch. Then I wore it nonstop for two or three years. I’m terrified to lose it now, and I never wanted to be that guy who doesn’t wear things because they’re scared of scratching it or this or that, but I’m terrified to lose it. So I wear it on her birthday, I wear it on Christmas, I wear it for moments where it’s family time, but it’s definitely not my everyday banger anymore.

I mean, it must have been hard to take it off, though, for those couple of years.

I finally took it off because I timed an [Audemars Piguet Royal Oak] “Jumbo” to turn up to the day that my second daughter was born, because we knew what day that she was going to be born ahead of time. So the day I took off the Nautilus, I put on the Jumbo that I got on my other daughter’s birthday. I think that those are the two watches that they’ll end up with.

So you have a succession plan for these?

Totally, and that’s the case with most of my watches. There are some that I’d want to leave to friends, or whoever, because I like the stories behind them and I want those stories to be carried on. And I hate the idea of—I don’t think anyone who truly loves watches buys them as an investment. You never really plan to sell them; you plan to build up a collection. When you go, they will belong to other people, and the stories will be carried on. I mean, I’ve got watches in my collection from people who have since passed away. Those watches hold their memories in them as well, and now they’re gonna have mine, and then I’ll pass them on. I like that idea about, well, things in general, but watches especially, just because they go with you everywhere and you see them as a companion.

When do you plan to give the Nautilus to your daughter? When she’s, like, 18?

Fuck no. Would you have wanted a watch like that when you were 18?

Probably, yeah. But I was an idiot at 18.

I’m thinking her 30th. It has to matter. It’s not getting lost at university. I did get that watch when I was 29, but I really appreciated it at 29. I think if I got that watch at 19, as my first watch, it would have been…yeah. Also, if I were to meet an 18-year-old who was wearing a 5711, I don’t know…

Just to go back for a moment, I do think a lot of people will be surprised to hear the waitlist applies to you—that you don’t just ask for a watch and then it turns up the next day.

Now, at Tiffany, [the watches] are really few and far between. I’ve got to be really specific. If I want one, I’ll just be like, “That’s the one,” and then badger them. I can’t just throw a net out anymore.