Dialled In with Darren Huckerby: 10to2 Sit Down with the Norwich City Legend to Discuss All Things Luxury Watches
Darren Huckerby sits down with 10to2’s Ciaran McCloskey to talk about how the watch culture in professional football has changed over the last 20 years. The Norwich city legend also shares insights into how he has curated his personal collection throughout numerous periods of change, from Lincoln to Manchester, Leeds to Norwich city, and all the way across the pond to San Jose.
Breitling beginnings to White Gold Daytonas
No watch related journal can start without first understanding the pure essence of what keeps our guests on time. “your audience might gawp at this, but I am sporting a white gold, white faced Daytona reference 116519, but I have removed the leather strap and replaced it with a non-branded steel blue rubber strap. It’s a classic look, predating the current ceramic bezels”. Its impressive on its own merit, but the decision is made tougher when you can pick your colours. “I have the same model with a black face, but the white is my favourite as it feels slightly classier”.
It has been over 30 years since Darren’s first professional game for Lincoln City, the burning passion to keep up the athleticism has not been extinguished, with 6 out of 7 days a week filled with rigorous exercise regimes. This time spent on the move means the watch preference sways to a digital sports offering to track vitals we have all become accustomed too. The downtime means one thing for Darren when picking what to wear on the wrist… and that is wearing something more dress-worthy and luxurious but not leaving any watch out.
Lincoln city was the first foray into earning a reasonable income as a professional footballer, but the passion for watches was not realised until moving from Newcastle United to Coventry City in 1996. “The first proper watch I bought was when I went from Newcastle to Coventry, earning slightly more money, I bought a Breitling Chronomat for around £1200. This was a big outlay at the time, but the blue dial and over-polished look really appealed to me back then”
“To me, watches are there to be worn. Every watch I own, I have made sure to wear for a substantial period”
Penalty box to the watch Box
“My love for watches really started when I began playing for Coventry City. Our captain was Gary McCallister, and he was massively into watches. We’d travel in to training together every day, and by far his interest was in Patek and Rolex”. At times, peering into friends and colleagues watch collections can often be the thief of joy when comparing to our own, but at the same time, to bear the knowledge of an awe-inspiring collection really sets the tone to aspire towards. Gary evidently knew his stuff and was the go-to watch aficionado for Darren and the rest of the squad. “He worked and trained incredibly hard all of his life to enjoy the finer things, and you knew his opinion was always 100% honest, not necessarily what you wanted to hear – he did not buy rubbish”
At the time, Darren stresses that watches weren’t a big ‘thing’. Players may have bought the latest and faux greatest from Jacob & Co, but a Patek could be had for less than £15,000 at the time, “It was still a lot of money, even back then, but no one was interested, and the concept of a wait list was non-existent. The Nautilus was easy to get!”. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, “If I knew what I do now, I would have bought every steel Rolex and Patek that was on offer, let alone every Daytona I could put my hands on!” Us too Darren, even better to have sold at the peak in 2022 during the covid-era!
From collecting to investing
Social media, coupled with bursts of bullish wall-street bets has created the concept of watches as investments. “I am fortunate that the 5 or 6 Patek’s that I have stored away have turned out to be great investments in their own right”. We can all agree that no one wants to buy anything, whether that is a car or a watch, to purposely lose money, but it’s nice to know that the large sums of money have been relatively safe. “Anyone now buying a Patek, Rolex or AP will first and foremost be interested in the downstream value, rather than appreciating the craftsmanship of the product they have the opportunity to acquire”. Trends have long shaped the ‘in’ watch, whether that’s by brand, or the type of watch, but buying what you like, and liking what you buy is the key to one’s modus operandi. The biggest issue now? “It is hard to rotate them, values of watches over recent years have kept climbing. Even with a softening market, all my watches are kept in a safety deposit box in the city, which limits the ability to continually change depending on the occasion.”
Current hype-culture has a lot to account for in shaping mainstream watch collections, but diversity and uniqueness elevates them to something special. “The Nautilus is a stunning watch, but it is nowhere near as beautiful as my Patek world timer”. Darren’s love for Patek is evident, and whilst appreciating the Nautilus becoming the holy grail of the holy trinity (Think – Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren in the hyper car market is the equivalent of Patek, Audemars Piquet and Vacheron Constantin in high horology), there are plenty of other watches that could be treated as being unobtainable, even when competing with the worlds number 1 in demand sports watch.
Coventry City was the start, but subsequent, successful spells at Leeds United and Manchester City, meant that the Northwest of England was a vibrant hub for horological activity due to the sheer earning potential players were able to achieve.
“As my career progressed, I sometimes reflect if I should have bought more watches when given the chance. I loved the sheer bulk of Panerai’s in the early 2000s, I even had the chance to buy multiple Richard Mille’s but back then I did not fully understand the brand – now look at them!”.
No. 6: From shirt to wrist
The professional football career landed Darren in the home of 10to2, playing in Norfolk for Norwich City. Ciaran frequently visited the training ground with plenty of ticking goodies that often-sparked debate and controversy in team. Darren credits Ciaran as “the man who knew more about watches than I did, and that’s saying something”. On pitch antics soon impacted the type of watches available. Darren’s shirt number was famously number 6 – “I have several IWCs which are part of limited edition runs, and Ciaran made sure to get model number 006 on all of them!”. This is exactly why we love watch collecting, personality never fails to shine through.
After making over 200 appearances, scoring 41 goals and solidifying himself as a Norwich legend, never one to back down from a challenge, Norfolk was swapped for San Jose, California to play in the MLS. “Not only was the football pitch a different atmosphere, but the watch culture was also not what I expected”. Where Silicon Valley had created huge success stories in business, and every other car being equally as impressive, the love for soccer was still in its infancy – “the players typically kept luxury goods to a minimum, the league wasn’t able to afford the wages that the Premier League or Championship could pay”.
Beyond the game – breaking the silence in mental health
10to2: With San Jose your last professional team, how did you cope with retiring from professional football, having spent so many years giving it your all?
“I knew when my time was up, a hip injury continually held me back and I could tell any minute that it was going to be an early retirement.”
Since retiring from professional football at 34, Darren has not sat around watching his collecting tick by. Leveraging his ambassadorial role with Norwich City, FC, he has been able to facilitate and lead talks surrounding Men’s health, a cause close to his and the football clubs’ hearts.
“Time is precious, there are as many negatives as there are positives when playing football. Some of the clubs I played at expected to lose week in, week out. Footballers are portrayed to be confident, mentally tough individuals, but the weight on their shoulders playing in front of 25,000 plus fans is tough”. Through Norwich City, he has been able to share his own experiences and channel the benefits that exercising and keeping active has on the mind. “We should all make sure we spend time training and exercising more often”. It might mean putting the dress or divers watch back in the box for a few hours, but this is absolutely something that us at 10to2 can get behind.
10to2: What advice would you give to anyone who needs some help?
“The most important thing I feel is that we should all talk more. It doesn’t matter to who, but being able to share trials and tribulations openly is massively important. Family, friends, neighbour or colleagues, I guarantee people are wanting to listen“
Are you needing support with your mental health? CALM has a series of resources available along with their helpline 0800 58 58 58 open from 5pm to midnight every day.
What’s next for Darren’s wrist?
Nearing the end of our time together, with the chronograph function on Darren’s Daytona beating way, it would be amiss not to know what his eyes are set on next.
“Funny story, but I have already acquired my planned next watch, to celebrate my 50th birthday…two years early! I had a long discussion with my wife about putting my name down on a bi-metal Rolex GMT – The ‘Rootbeer’, and low and behold I was able to purchase this way earlier than anticipated and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity”.
10to2: With a couple of years to fill the gap before the big five-o, will there be any more spontaneous purchases?
“I don’t believe so, I am happy with my collection and whilst the bulk of it was purchased many years ago, circumstances have changed and to go out to buy a new Patek would not be sensible. However, I have thought about selling a few of the watches I currently own, but the new Patek Cubitus didn’t quite hit the mark with me. I still love the brand, but their first to product line after 25 years failed to impress, and reading about the reaction it feels I am not the only one!”
Time may have slowed down on the pitch, but for Darren, it continues to move forward with a commitment to living life to its fullest. From his early days with a Breitling to the solid gold GMT, Darren’s watches not only mark milestones but also represent the timeless nature of his passion for luxury watches.
