Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Abdul Hamied Seddiqi spotted wearing Rolex

Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, a key figure in the Seddiqi & Sons watch retail empire that has defined luxury timepiece distribution across the UAE and wider Gulf region for decades, was recently photographed wearing the Rolex GMT-Master II 'Sprite' Lefty on a five-link Jubilee bracelet — reference 126720VTNR. The sighting is notable not only for the watch itself but for who is wearing it: a man whose family business has shaped how the region encounters and acquires Rolex at an institutional level.

Introduced at Watches & Wonders Geneva in April 2022, the GMT-Master II 126720VTNR is defined by three engineering decisions that collectively make it unique in the current Rolex catalog. First, the crown is positioned at 9 o'clock rather than the standard 3 o'clock — a true left-handed configuration. Second, the bidirectional rotatable bezel carries a two-color Cerachrom ceramic insert in black and green, earning the immediate nickname 'Sprite.' Third, the date window migrates to 9 o'clock to maintain ergonomic logic for the left-wrist, crown-away orientation. The 40mm Oystersteel case houses Calibre 3285, Rolex's in-house manufacture movement featuring a Chronergy escapement, paramagnetic components, and a 70-hour power reserve certified as a Superlative Chronometer to ±2 seconds per day.

From a collector standpoint, the 126720VTNR occupies a rare position: it is simultaneously a production Rolex and a conversation piece with a genuine technical rationale rather than purely cosmetic differentiation. The left-handed crown makes the watch genuinely more comfortable for right-wrist wearers — Rolex's stated design intent — but it also creates a visual asymmetry that reads as bold even against the backdrop of the broader GMT-Master II family. The Jubilee bracelet, composed of five-piece links and finished with Rolex's Oysterclasp, elevates the piece toward a dressier register versus the three-link Oyster alternative.

Seddiqi's choice here is telling. As someone embedded in the professional watch world at the highest retail level, his personal collection decisions carry weight beyond fashion. Wearing the 'Sprite' Lefty signals genuine appreciation for a reference that disrupts category conventions rather than merely iterating on them.

At retail, the 126720VTNR carries a list price of approximately $11,050 USD. On the secondary market, strong demand has pushed grey-market values to the $35,000 range — a premium that reflects both restricted availability and the reference's status as one of the most discussed Rolex releases of the 2020s.