Goodbye Sarkozy, welcome Hollande

Nicolas Sarkozy is a man of style. He dresses well and he even has a nice watch collection. This wouldn’t be a topic on Monochrome, if it wasn’t for the photo showing Francois Hollande, the new French president, looking at his watch and actually staring at the clasp!

Let’s first look at some photos showing the watches of the departing French president. There’s a Patek Philippe, a Breitling, an old Rolex Oyster Perpetual (Date or Datejust), a Rolex Daytona white dial and one with a black dial.

The photo above shows a typical inspired or even dramatic way of speeching. Not that I’m an expert in this field, but it seems the signature style of speeching for most French and Italian politicians.

The following photo shows Sarkozy with a Rolex Oyster Perpetual on a jubilee bracelet. From this small photo I cannot determine whether it’s a Oyster Perpetual Date or an Oyster Perpetual Datejust.

Not sure who he is signaling to call. However judging from the ear-to-ear smile it’s most likely a good looking lady, so we guess he signals Carla Bruni, his lovely wife, to call him.

Talking about miss Sarkozy, or Carla Bruni, it was she who gave Sarkozy a very nice president-wrothy timepiece. In 2008 she gave him a Patek Philippe ref. 3940G.

The Patek Philippe ref. 3940G has a round white gold case of 35 mm in diameter. It features a perpetual calendar and moon phase indication. The Patek Philippe reference 3940 perpetual calendar was produced from 1985 to 2006. Because the French news website Le Express states that Carla bought the watch in 2008, maybe she bought a used version?

The calendar functions are presented in a perfect balanced way. That’s one of the things that makes this reference so desirable and also the fact the case measures less than 9 mm in height. Add to that the gorgeous dauphine hands, the silver dial with applied hour markers and a calatrava-like round case resulting in a perfect example of a classic perpetual calendar.

The lousy photo above doesn’t show much details of the beautiful Patek Philippe ref. 3940G. But you can trust me that it does have a gorgeous movement, being caliber 240 Q (stand for quantieme) with 27 jewels, 48 hour power reserve and with the Geneva Seal.

I found another photo of Sarkozy with a Breitling Navitimer on the wrist, but let’s look at the following photo showing Sarkozy saying goodbye with a Rolex Daytona with a white dial on his wrist. Bye mister Sarkozy….

And this is what the next president of France looks like… Let’s justy hope he’s better in politics and leading a country through difficult times, than he is in telling the time. This photo doesn’t give a trustworthy feeling….

This article is written by Frank Geelen, executive editor of Monochrome Watches.