Rolex 16610

The Rolex 16610 has turned up on a genuinely varied cross-section of public figures — which is part of what makes tracking it interesting. Actors dominate the list: Patrick Swayze, Cameron Diaz, Nicolas Cage, Al Pacino, and Jonah Hill have all been spotted wearing the reference at various points, spanning generations and very different on-screen personas. Television presenters Richard Hammond and Jon Almaas have been caught with one on the wrist, as has designer Jan Thomas and entrepreneur Tom Ford. On the sporting side, Diego Maradona — arguably the most famous footballer who ever lived — wore the 16610, and the watch world's own Giorgia Mondani, a writer who has spent decades cataloguing Rolex references professionally, wears one as what amounts to a working tool. Politician Dick Gordon and entrepreneur Jason Hardi round out a list of thirteen confirmed sightings. That kind of spread — Hollywood A-listers, a football legend, a motoring presenter, a luxury designer, and a horological author — tells you this is not a watch that signals membership of a single tribe.

Demand for the Rolex 16610 has remained strong well into its post-production life. Rolex discontinued the reference in 2010, replacing it with the ceramic-bezel 116610. On the secondary market, clean examples with box and papers regularly trade above their original retail price, with desirable configurations — lug holes intact, unpolished case, correct tritium or luminova dial depending on production year — commanding a meaningful premium. Because the 16610 predates the current era of extreme Rolex waitlists, buyers who missed it new must go through dealers and auction houses, where prices have held firm rather than softened.

The 16610 is a stainless steel Submariner Date running the calibre 3135 automatic movement, produced from 1988 to 2010. Figures like Al Pacino and Diego Maradona wearing the same reference that a watch journalist like Giorgia Mondani chooses as her daily driver underlines exactly why the model built the following it did.

More Rolex references worn by celebrities

• Rolex 116500 (85 celebrities)
• Rolex 116508 (63 celebrities)
• Rolex 116506️ (50 celebrities)
• Rolex 116520 (39 celebrities)
• Rolex 116505 (38 celebrities)
• Rolex 116595RBOW️ (38 celebrities)
• Rolex 126710BLRO️‍ (37 celebrities)
• Rolex 228235 (33 celebrities)

See all Rolex references →