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Basketball player Marco Belinelli spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Marco Belinelli, the Bologna-born guard who spent 14 seasons in the NBA before returning to Italy, was recently spotted wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph in reference 26170ST — a piece collectors commonly call the 'Panda' for its white dial and contrasting black subdials. It is a pairing that feels entirely deliberate: a serious watch for a serious career.

The Ref. 26170ST is a 42mm stainless steel case housing AP's Calibre 3126/3840, an automatic movement with column-wheel chronograph control, a 50-hour power reserve, and a frequency of 21,600 vph. The case, when delivered in its unpolished — or 'bead-blasted' — configuration, strips away the flashiness that critics have sometimes leveled at the Offshore line, leaving a tool-watch seriousness that sits well on the wrist. The white Grande Tapisserie dial, black counters at 3, 6, and 9, and a date at 4:30 read cleanly and legibly, exactly what a chronograph should do.

The Royal Oak Offshore was born in 1993 when Emmanuel Gueit, then just a junior designer at AP, scaled up Gerald Genta's iconic Royal Oak into something deliberately provocative. The 26170ST represents a later, more refined chapter of that story — introduced in the 2010s as part of AP's effort to consolidate the Offshore range. Among collectors, the Panda configuration consistently commands attention. The unpolished case variant is particularly sought after, seen as the purist's choice within a reference that already skews toward the enthusiast community.

Belinelli retired from professional basketball with a résumé that includes an NBA title with San Antonio in 2014 and stints with Golden State, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and several other franchises. He remains the only Italian to have won the NBA championship. That kind of transatlantic career — elite, decorated, but never loudly celebrated in the way American-born stars are — maps neatly onto a watch like the 26170ST: genuinely prestigious, technically accomplished, but not the first thing a casual observer would point at.

On the secondary market, the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 26170ST in steel has shown stable demand, trading comfortably above retail. Grey-market pricing typically ranges between $28,000 and $35,000 depending on condition and documentation, with unpolished examples attracting a modest premium. Official AP retail for new Offshore Chronograph references in steel sits in the $30,000–$38,000 range. For a returning NBA champion settling back into Italian life, it is a perfectly calibrated choice.