It didn’t take long for the 6 God-blessed Rollie to find a new home. The week it went up for sale, Wind told me he received “two offers a bit below the ask,” in addition to several conversations with people who were interested but had not yet extended offers.
One of those on-the-fence parties reached out to Justin Zhou, a collector and founder of watch community JZO Club, for guidance after seeing one of Zhou’s Instagram Reels on the topic. The lucky buyer—probably blasting “HYFR” in his penthouse right now—wound up bringing Zhou on to advise on the deal, which gave him the opportunity to try on this iconic piece of hip-hop memorabilia.
I spoke with Zhou about connecting with this mysterious buyer, what it was like having an all-time grail on his wrist, and what happened at the dinner that finalized the purchase.
GQ: Did you know the buyer prior to this deal?
Zhou: I didn’t know him at all. We were total strangers until a few days ago. He watched my content and he liked and knew how much I liked Drake. So, when this watch first came up for purchase, I made this video where I specifically said, “I’d love to manifest being a part of this transaction.” I was able to manifest a meeting with the CEO of Audemars Piguet, Ilaria Resta. I was able to manifest getting a [Rolex Daytona] “Panda” at retail. So, yeah, I’m a big believer in manifestation. It’s not my hottest video, but I want to get it out there. The buyer sees it and slides in my DMs.
The power of asking.
So he messages me: “I’m likely going to buy the Drake Watch. If you want to be involved, please let me know.” And he puts his phone number and adds, “You’re the man, would love your help.” So for me, when I saw this, I was suspicious at first. Because usually when big watch collectors reach out to me, we have mutuals and I can ask around. But we only had one mutual and that person wasn’t even a watch collector.
But then, the day after, he sends me another follow-up: “Bumping this if you’re interested. And he emails me too. So that’s when I knew, like, shit, this guy might be serious.
If he’s trying to murder you, he’s really putting in the legwork.
Yeah, for sure. And so I respond and say I’d love to help and ask what his reasons are for buying it. He gave me an elaborate story of how he built his business, and Drake’s music was a huge part in growing it. He’s a big Drake guy and Take Care is his favorite album, blah, blah, blah. It’s a great story. I quickly found out that he’s a very legit, very successful guy, and we ended up going to dinner last night.
