Actor Mark Wahlberg spotted wearing a Rolex

In Michael Bay's 2013 action-comedy Pain and Gain, Mark Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo, a Miami bodybuilder and career criminal loosely based on the real-life leader of the Sun Gym Gang — a group responsible for kidnapping, extortion, and murder in mid-1990s Florida. The production's costume department made a telling choice: Lugo acquires his watch not through honest success but by stripping it from a tortured victim, Victor Kershaw. That watch is the Rolex Day-Date 36 in solid 18k yellow gold with a mother-of-pearl dial, ref. 118348 — and it reads on screen exactly as intended.

The Rolex Day-Date 118348 is a variant of the reference 118348 family fitted with a factory diamond-set bezel and diamond hour markers against a luminous mother-of-pearl dial. The 36mm yellow gold case sits on a President bracelet, the three-link design introduced specifically for the Day-Date in 1956 and still exclusive to the model. Power comes from the Calibre 3155, a proprietary automatic movement beating at 28,800 vph with a Parachrom hairspring, offering roughly 48 hours of power reserve and a day complication that cycles through the full word — not an abbreviation — in up to 26 languages.

The Day-Date has carried the nickname "President's watch" since Dwight D. Eisenhower received an early example in 1956. Rolex has always positioned it as the apex of the Oyster line, available exclusively in precious metals — 18k gold in yellow, white, or Everose, and platinum. The 118348 with diamond bezel and mother-of-pearl dial sits firmly at the top of the desirability ladder within the 36mm generation, which was eventually succeeded by the 40mm 228348 range.

Wahlberg's own relationship with serious horology is well documented — the actor has been spotted in real life wearing high-end Rolex and Patek Philippe references. Having him wear the 118348 on screen reinforces Lugo's character arc: a man obsessed with the aesthetic symbols of wealth he believes he deserves. The watch functions as shorthand for stolen luxury.

On the current grey market the Rolex Day-Date 118348 with diamond bezel and mother-of-pearl dial trades at approximately $50,000, reflecting steady demand for precious-metal Day-Dates in mint condition. Official retail for comparable current-generation yellow gold Day-Date references with diamond bezels sits above $38,000, though the 118348 is no longer in active production, lending it quiet collector appeal.