Watch Paparazzi

Basketball player Michael Jordan spotted wearing Rolex

Michael Jordan was recently photographed wearing one of the rarest Rolex customizations in existence: a Bamford Watch Department 'Polar' Daytona, limited to just ten examples worldwide. The former Chicago Bulls icon was spotted in a characteristically low-key outfit — Air Jordan cap, grey tee, camo shorts — letting the wrist do the talking, as is his habit.

The base watch is the Rolex Daytona Cosmograph reference 116520, the last generation of the model powered by the in-house Calibre 4130 automatic chronograph movement before the transition to the ceramic-bezel 116500LN. The 116520 runs at 28,800 vph, offers 72 hours of power reserve, and houses a column-wheel and vertical clutch mechanism that Rolex developed entirely in-house — a significant engineering milestone for the brand. The 40mm case in Oystersteel retains its original tachymeter bezel, dial furniture, and panda sub-register layout, but Bamford's intervention is total: the entire external metal surface — case, bracelet, bezel flanks — has been treated with a white graphite particle coating, the same proprietary DLC-variant process that gives Bamford's 'Graphite' series its slate-grey signature, here applied in arctic white.

The result is a watch that is visually cohesive in a way factory Rolex never attempts: the white coating unifies case and bracelet into a single sculptural object, broken only by the black chronograph sub-dial rings and indices. Bamford named this the 'Polar' collection, a reference to the dial's icy palette. With a production run of ten pieces, it occupies rare territory even within the world of aftermarket Rolex customization — a field crowded with operators but thin on truly collectible outputs.

Jordan's watch collection is well-documented among collectors: he leans toward Rolex, Patek Philippe, and occasional independent makers, often gravitating toward pieces that are personally meaningful or genuinely scarce rather than simply expensive. A ten-piece Bamford Daytona fits that profile precisely.

On the secondary market, unmodified 116520 references with white panda dials currently trade between $18,000 and $24,000 depending on condition and papers. The Bamford 'Polar' premium is substantial — the original asking price was reported at $55,000 — reflecting both the customization cost and extreme scarcity. For context, Jordan's piece likely appreciates further given documented celebrity provenance.