Salt Bae has three loves: charging influencers stupid amounts of money for overseasoned steaks, manhandling Argentinian soccer players, and expensive Patek Philippe watches.
The 39-year-old Turkish butcher, restauranter and social media star (real name Nusret Gökçe) has improbably parlayed his Internet meme fame into becoming a multi-millionaire feted by the world’s rich and famous, who are all keen to dine at his global chain of steakhouses.
While his restaurants have been criticised for being too expensive (and not very good), it’s hard to be too critical of the man and his boy-came-good story, rising from very humble beginnings as the son of a mineworker and butcher’s assistant to international superstar.
What does he spend his millions on, though? The answer’s simple: Patek Philippe. Salt Bae is absolutely obsessed with the Swiss watchmaker’s creations, especially the Patek Philippe Nautilus. He’s never seen without a Patek – and he owns literally dozens of the things.
We’ve rounded up some of the most interesting and excessive Patek Philippe watches Salt Bae owns.
Salt Bae recently made headlines after gate-crashing the Argentinian football team’s victory celebrations on the field post-match at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, pestering players for photos and even holding the trophy – a gesture reserved for winners and heads of state. (He’s since been banned from entering any stadium at the 2026 FIFA World Cup).
However, something you might have missed during that viral moment was the outrageous watch Salt Bae was wearing: a bedazzled yellow gold Patek Philippe Nautilus (ref. 3800/3J). As mentioned above, Salt Bae has a particular penchant for Nautiluses, especially vintage pieces, especially if they’re blinged-out.
This 90s-era Nautilus combines an 18ct yellow gold case and bracelet with a ‘champagne’ dial featuring diamonds for hour markers, and a bezel set with 40 diamonds worth around 0.9ct. It’s worth around US$120,000.
Naturally, this is a very bougie watch… But would you believe this is nowhere near the most bougie Nautilus Salt Bae has in his collection?
This Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph (ref. 5980/1R-001) is also one of the more subtle Nautiluses in his collection – if such a thing is possible. Salt Bae tends to prefer time-only models but this chronograph is a rare exception.
Crafted from 18ct rose gold, this take on the famous luxury sports watch features a flyback chronograph complication – perfect for timing how long it takes for you to sprinkle several hundred grams worth of rock salt down your forearm onto a customer’s tenderloin.
One of Patek’s most popular models, this chronograph regularly sells for over US$200,000.
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This Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time (ref. 5164A-001) is a triple rarity for Salt Bae: not only is it made from stainless steel and not a precious metal, but it’s not a Nautilus and it features a complication. It’s actually often harder to get stainless steel Pateks than it is to get precious metal models, though…
Actually, the Travel Time is probably one of the most interesting watches Patek makes. As the name implies, it features a novel dual time zone mechanism that indicates local and home time, with the pressers on the left-hand side of the case allowing users to adjust each time zone. It also features a date wheel at 6 o’clock for the local date.
It retails for around US$40,000 but market prices far exceed retail, with the Travel Time usually fetching around US$90,000.
Here’s a watch of Salt Bae’s that’s particularly unusual: his Patek Philippe Calatrava ‘Clous De Paris’ (ref. 3520/10). This watch actually marks him out as a real Patek connoisseur: sure, the insane number of Nautiluses he owns just reeks of ‘new money’, but this vintage Calatrava is something that only a real watch fan would opt for.
The Calatrava is one of Patek’s most enduring dress watch designs. This particular example features a handmade ‘Clous de Paris’ bezel: a guilloché technique that forms a series of small pyramid-like squares, which is also sometimes called a hobnail pattern.
Like many of his watches, this 70s model is crafted from 18ct yellow gold. It’s also mounted on a gold integrated bracelet with flat links. These will set you back around US$50,000.
Now this is probably the bougiest Nautilus that Salt bae owns: his ref. 5719/11G-010, which he can be seen here showing off to Thierry Stern, the president of Patek Philippe. Interestingly, Stern is wearing an Aquanaut Travel Time, just like the one Salt Bae has.
This unbelievably excessive white gold model is completely paved with over 1,400 diamonds worth over 18ct. This specific watch is a bit of an enigma, as Salt Bae’s been seen wearing the same watch with a sapphire bezel – although this model also seems to have sapphire hour markers.
Either Salt Bae’s had the sapphires on the bezel swapped out for diamonds (or the baguette diamond hour markers swapped out for sapphires, which seems less plausible) or this is a piece unique that combines a diamond bezel with sapphire hour markers and blue hands.
In any case, this is a bloody insane watch that’s probably worth in excess of US$1 million. As Salt Bae would say, “WOW.”
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