Don’t let his huge diamond earring, the fancy Rolex Leopard
Although he lives the wildest life in luxury, he has managed to maintain his integrity and you get the feeling that while he enjoys his life to the fullest, respect, care and honesty are still important values to him.
His name is Michael Blakey.
Who?
Recently, I came across a YouTube channel named ‘ProducerMichael’, which at first glance I considered to be a channel without significant interest to me.
The uploaded videos had titles like ‘$ 4.5 million diamond bracelet!‘, ‘My new $ 500,000 Black Badge Rolls Royce Dawn!‘, ‘On board my new jet!‘, etc., and based on the titles, I rated the content of the videos to be irrelevant to me.
But I noticed that some of the videos also dealt with wristwatches and then I became a little interested again.
I decided to watch one of these videos and discovered that it was both enlightening and entertaining, and that the main character behind appeared as a very likeable person.
I ended up throwing myself over one video after another, including the ones that wasn’t about watches.
So who is this ‘ProducerMichael’?
Producer Michael
Michael Blakey (born 8 December 1958, London, England) is a record producer, promoter, composer, musician, arranger, songwriter and artist manager.
He has cooperated with many notable artists and performers including, Engelbert Humperdinck, Luther Vandross, Gloria Gaynor, Tears for Fears, Ron White, Coolio, Akwid, Mary J. Blige, No Doubt, 2Pac, Glen Campbell, Brian McKnight, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Bob Carlisle, and Michelle Wright.
At the age of only 19, Michael became a co-producer at Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany, and got to work with many prominent names there.
Through the 1980s and 1990s Michael worked as a session recording drummer and in 1999 he founded the record label 2KSounds.
Since the mid 90s Michael has founded several music production and promotional companies, including Platinum Records, and he has been focusing primarily on management and promotion.
He loves to wear fancy shirts and colorful shoes, he doesn’t touch alcohol and he doesn’t do drugs, except an aspirin from time to time, as he says.
He lives and breathes the good moments of life, is down-to-earth and light-hearted and has a good sense of humor, and with a glint in the eye he has described himself as a ‘modern Austin Powers on steroids’.
And then he collects watches by the way, which in a flash brings us back to this place.
The First Buy
The first watch Michael got was a Rolex Submariner
This watch cost him about $4,500 of his hard-earned money and that was a fortune for him at the time. Michael has compared it to buying a house.
Since then Michael has built a collection of watches that can make any connoisseur green with envy.
These watches are so expensive that Michael’s insurance company insists that he keeps them in the bank.
Yep, this is indeed a very fine collection of great wristwatches, so without further ado, let’s take a look at what he’s got.
The Estimated Price Range includes Pre-Owned watches.
The Collection
Selfwinding chronograph known as the ‘Navy’ with date display and small seconds at 12 o’clock, stainless steel case, sapphire crystal, white gold Royal Oak hands and hand-stitched blue alligator strap.
Subdials, markers and the buttons are Navy Blue.
Michael’s watch does not have the original strap made from genuine alligator skin, but has been replaced by an Horus rubber strap in matching camouflage blue.
Estimated Price Range: $15,000 – $25,000.
Commonly known as the ’President’ or ’Presidential’, 41 mm, 18 ct. yellow gold, 100 m water resistant.
The 41 mm verison of Rolex Day-Date has become very sought after among collectors as it’s no longer manufactured, but has been replaced by a 40 mm version.
Estimated Price Range: $30,000 – $35,000.
Selfwinding chronograph, 40 mm, 18 ct. yellow gold, factory diamond dial, all markers made of diamonds.
This Rolex model was specifically designed with motor racing in mind.
Estimated Price Range: $25,000 – $35,000.
The watch itself is made of 18 ct. rose gold, bezel and some parts inside of the watch are made with materials from the historic passenger liner Titanic.
The company has specialized in using unusual materials for construction of selected watch parts.
Estimated Price Range:
Automatic movement, 18 ct. rose gold, rubber strap, alarm on/off indicator, alarm power-reserve indicator, water resistant to a depth of 300 meters.
Estimated Price Range:
44 mm, automatic, rotor on the back winds the mainspring, baguette invisible set diamond bezel, very rare watch.
Flyback chronograph, oversize date and month indicator, 60-minute countdown timer at 9 o’clock, 12-hour totaliser.
Richard Mille makes limited quantity of watches, so they are quite rare and hard to come by.
One of Michael’s absolute favourite watches.
Estimated Price Range:
Automatic, 43 mm, stainless steel, sapphire glass, covered with aftermarket diamonds, water resistance 100 m.
Michael doesn’t wear Patek Philippe
Estimated Price Range:
Basically the same model as no. 8. on Michael’s list, except this one is made of gold.
Estimated Price Range:
Chronograph, weighs more than a pound, solid gold covered with diamonds, in fact the front is covered with diamonds including the dial, the bezel and the bracelet.
Estimated Price Range:
Basically the same model as no. 10, only this one is made of stainless steel and much lighter than the version in gold.
Estimated Price Range:
Yet another Rolex Day-Date, 41 mm ‘Presidential’, this one blinged out with hour markers made of diamonds while the bezel and bracelet is also covered with diamonds.
Estimated Price Range:
Made of white gold and diamonds, the bezel is baguettes with black onyx, bezel turns in both directions.
Another of Michael’s favorites.
Estimated Price Range:
Chronograph, covered with about 10 ct. of aftermarket diamonds, 90% stainless steel, blue alligator strap.
Estimated Price Range: $15,000 – $35,000.
Another Cartier Santos XL, but without the chronograph features. White rubber strap. Diamonds on the top of the case only, none on the side or back.
Estimated Price Range: $10,000 – $20,000.
18 ct. yellow gold watch with factory diamonds. Sub-dial with a second time zone. Stingray band. Automatic.
Estimated Price Range: $30,000 – $50,000.
Chronograph, skeleton, worth substantially more than the retail price as they are extremely difficult to get.
Estimated Price Range:
Presidential, pavé dial with ruby markers, diamond bezel, other than that it’s a regular president.
Estimated Price Range:
Automatic chronograph, stainless steel, double fold out clasp, inner bezel, arabic numerals.
Estimated Price Range:
40mm chronograph, white gold, factory diamonds, buckle made of white gold and covered with diamonds, rubber band.
Estimated Price Range:
40mm, rose gold, diamonds in the bezel, rubber band, has not been modified, it’s all factory.
Estimated Price Range:
Japanese quartz chronograph, sub dials has two hands, minute repeater, chimes on the minute and hour, perpetual calendar, day, month, year, moon phase, second time zone.
Michael bought this watch about 25 years ago and back then it was considered one of the most complicated watches ever made.
He believes he paid about $2,000 for this watch, which is less than the price of some of his watch straps.
Estimated Price Range: $600 – $1,400.
Stainless steel and rose gold, dial made of rose gold with baguette hour markers, center links made of rose gold with aftermarket diamonds, bezel covered with diamonds as well.
Estimated Price Range:
Basically the same watch as no. 14 on the list, except this one is made of 18 ct. solid gold. Diamonds on the bracelet, double clasp.
Estimated Price Range:
44 mm, super light, carbon composite case, bezel, pushers and crown are ceramic, crown guard and case back made of titanium.
Estimated Price Range:
White gold, 12 time zones, set with flawless diamonds, hand wind, power reserve 120 hours, sapphire crystal, triangular dial markers, alligator strap with contrast stitching.
Estimated Price Range:
Made of titanium, power reserve 48 hours, manually wound, skeleton, sapphire glass, rubber strap, water resistance 50 m.
Estimated Price Range:
Another Richard Mille RM 11-03 with the same specs as no. 7 and 17 on the list, except for the band.
Estimated Price Range:
Same as no. 27 except this model is made in rose gold.
The strap is unique as the top is made from alligator skin and the other side is rubber, meaning that the side of the strap that is in contact with the wrist won’t be damaged from sweat.
Estimated Price Range:
Michael got this watch as a special gift from a friend and it’s not very expensive.
SwissPL is a company that offers a variety of options to design your own watch including case type, dial printing and tailored caseback and bracelet engraving.
Estimated Price Range:
44 mm, bezel covered with baguette shaped aftermarket diamonds, the case itself is pavé diamonds, openwork back.
Estimated Price Range:
This model was designed in collaboration with Formula One legend Michael Schumacher.
44 mm, chronograph, bezel made of the ultra-hard CeraMet, dial is anthracite grey.
Notice the seven stars between 12 o’clock and 1 o’clock representing Schumacher’s two championships with Benetton and five championships with Ferrari.
Estimated Price Range:
18 ct. rose gold, sapphire apertures on sides, manual winding, 60 hours power reserve.
Highly sophisticated watch which in Michael’s opinion is the greatest timepiece that’s ever been built.
Estimated Price Range: $500,000 – $1,000,000.
47 mm, automatic, 60 minute chronograph, 18 ct. gold, white ceramic, rubber strap, sapphire crystal.
Estimated Price Range: $10,000 – $50,000.
That’s the end of the tour through Michael Blakey’s Watch Collection.
All the watches presented in this article can also be seen in Michael’s video series in three parts where he explains about them personally, and I strongly recommend you to visit his YouTube channel and look them up:
And while you are there, in Michael’s own words, don’t forget to “Hit the subscribe button, hit the bell, and with that, see ya!”.
Related Articles
Michael Blakey’s Shocking New Watch Purchase!
Celebrities and Their Watches – Leonardo DiCaprio
Michael has some great watch cases for his collection. Any chance someone can share the brand names? Particularly interested in blue leather from clog with Kevin. Thanks!