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Patrick Getreide’s OAK Collection—OAK stands for “One of a Kind”—is known for rare watches, but his 2022 interview with Time+Tide also offers a revealing picture of how one collector thinks: privately, carefully, and with room for watches at very different price levels. Here are ten lessons from that conversation, with later reporting that updates one important part of the story.
1. He kept collecting private
In a 2022 interview with Time+Tide, Getreide recalled: “Ninety-nine per cent of my family and friends didn’t know actually. I told no one.” That was his account of his own circle, not a survey of collectors. It suggests that the collection grew for years without public recognition being part of the point.
2. A Cartier Tank started the collection
Time+Tide traced the OAK Collection to a 1980 Cartier Tank LC, purchased with proceeds from a family horse’s race win. A later WorldTempus interview in 2025 also recounts the horse-race and Tank origin story, though the accounts give different amounts. The useful point is the connection: a personal family event led to a watch, and that watch became the collection’s beginning.
3. His favorite one-off was a personal commission
Asked which watch he would choose from the collection, Getreide pointed to a steel Patek Philippe 5320 QP. In the Time+Tide interview, he said Patek made it for him after he had waited five years. That makes the watch’s significance personal as well as technical: it is the piece he singled out, not simply a rare object with an impressive specification. The commission details are Getreide’s account as reported in the interview.
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4. Collection care was built into his routine
Getreide described frequent oversight by a watchmaker, followed by a longer review every four months: “I have a watchmaker who sees them all the time, every month, and every four months, we do the big thing, 24 hours, to see which ones go to him [to be serviced or repaired].” If the watchmaker could not handle a job, he said the watch went to Patek Philippe. This is the routine he described for his own collection, not a recommended service interval for every watch.
5. A celebrated historic watch reportedly needed little work
The profile says Getreide’s Henry Graves Jr. Observatory Tourbillon had not been overhauled since he acquired it and had only been re-oiled. The watch was commissioned in 1932 and won first prize at the Geneva Observatory timing contest in 1933–34, according to the article. Its reported service history is striking, but it is a story about one watch—not a reason to assume that old watches generally need little maintenance.
6. He wears the watches instead of treating them all as untouchable
Getreide told Time+Tide that he wears every watch in the collection. For pieces he uses especially often, he sometimes owns a duplicate: “I have two of some watches, one for my collection and one for me, because some of those I wear a lot and I need a little respect because I really use them.” He also described swimming with some modern, complicated watches. That anecdote reflects his own use and should not be taken as a water-resistance recommendation for another watch.
7. He is drawn to discreet metals
Getreide said he gravitates toward platinum, white gold, titanium and steel. The Time+Tide writer connected that preference with understated or “stealth wealth” styling; that is the writer’s interpretation, rather than a stated explanation from Getreide. The preference helps explain why a collection famous for rare pieces need not rely on conspicuous color or precious-metal shine to make an impression.
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8. His taste can include an inexpensive watch
The Time+Tide profile described Getreide wearing and gifting a Bristol Clubmaster Chic Steel, then priced at €160. That is the article’s 2022-era figure, not a current price or a verified listing. The example is a useful counterpoint to the collection’s rarities: his enjoyment of watches was not limited to its most valuable pieces.
9. A famous client can still be left guessing
Getreide said he received no more than two days’ advance notice of new Patek Philippe releases and did not know what would happen with future Nautilus models. That was his description of the situation at the time of the 2022 interview, not evidence of the brand’s current release policy. It is a reminder that access and enthusiasm do not mean a collector knows what a manufacturer will do next.
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10. His view of the collection’s future changed in public
In 2022, Time+Tide reported that Getreide had sold only one watch and expected his children might eventually sell the collection. By November 2023, Forbes reported that he planned to offer around 140–142 watches from OAK at Christie’s in Hong Kong. That was a planned sale, not a final tally of pieces sold; these accounts do not establish the auction’s complete results or the collection’s present inventory.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What shaped the OAK Collection
Getreide described the collection as having more than 600 pieces in a 2022 WatchPro interview. He summed up his priorities as “condition, rarity and provenance.” He said he wanted watches in excellent condition while recognizing that some collectors value visible wear. Those are his criteria, not universal rules for collecting.
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WatchPro described OAK as spanning vintage and modern watches, about 50 brands, and a range of price levels, with Patek Philippe especially prominent. Its exhibition coverage pointed to Calatravas, chronographs, perpetual calendars, world timers, rare handcrafts, Henry Graves pieces, Nautilus models, Rolex sports watches and independent makers. Those categories show how a collection can be organized around different kinds of appeal: age, condition and originality; rarity and provenance; complication or design; and personal taste.
The 2022 Design Museum exhibition presented around 160 watches, according to WatchPro. Forbes later described the exhibition as containing 168 pieces. The small difference is a reason to use an approximate count rather than imply that a single precise total is established. Neither figure represents the collection’s current inventory.
Getreide also argued that collectors should share what they own: “A lot of big collectors don’t want to show their watches – they don’t want people to know what they have – but to me sharing is important,” he told WatchPro. The idea sits neatly beside his earlier privacy: he kept his own collecting quiet for a long time, then came to see public display as valuable. On what he would tell beginners, a Hypebeast interview quotes him saying, “First, they have to learn,” including through books and museums, before deciding what kind of watch to buy.
Why the story is more than a list of rare watches
The OAK story combines personal attachment with connoisseurship. A family horse’s win led to a Tank; the collector’s own stated tests were condition, rarity and provenance; and the watches were worn as well as preserved. The later plan to sell a large group adds a final distinction: a collector’s intentions can change, and a collection’s next chapter is not always the one imagined years earlier. The sources cited here do not establish the present inventory, current access or exhibition schedule, or final results for every planned 2023 auction lot.
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