Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Achraf Hakimi spotted wearing Rolex

Achraf Hakimi, PSG's Moroccan international fullback and one of European football's most stylish on and off the pitch, was recently seen wearing a Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41mm in stainless steel with the coveted 'Coral Red' lacquer dial, reference 124300 — a piece that has become one of the decade's most talked-about production Rolexes despite its relatively modest entry-level positioning within the catalogue.

Rolex introduced the ref. 124300 in 2020 alongside a rebooted Oyster Perpetual family, and the centrepiece of the launch was a set of five lacquer dial colours — turquoise blue, candy pink, yellow, coral red, and green — that sent the watch world into a collective frenzy. The design nod was deliberate and historically literate: Rolex was consciously echoing the Stella dials of the 1970s and 1980s, those intensely pigmented lacquer surfaces that appeared on Day-Date models and are now among the most ferociously hunted vintage references in the hobby. The 124300 houses the calibre 3230, Rolex's in-house self-winding movement featuring the Chronergy escapement, a 70-hour power reserve, and Superlative Chronometer certification to ±2 seconds per day. The 41mm Oyster case in Oystersteel is water-resistant to 100 metres — clean, tool-watch bones beneath a dial that is anything but understated.

The Coral Red ref. 124300 holds a specific place in collector culture as proof that Rolex can manufacture instant scarcity at entry-level price points. At a list price of $6,150 it was nominally the most accessible watch in the current Rolex lineup, yet authorised dealers allocated stock almost invisibly, and grey-market prices climbed past $18,000 — a premium of nearly 200 percent. Rolex has since discontinued the coloured-dial 124300 references, which has only hardened secondary-market values.

Hakimi, 26, has built a reputation as one of the more genuinely watch-literate figures in top-flight football. His choice here is telling: this is not a watch purchased for raw monetary flex — there are far more expensive Rolexes he could have reached for — but rather a piece that signals collector awareness, an understanding of horological narrative and cultural timing.

On the current grey market, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 'Coral Red' ref. 124300 trades around $18,500, with clean examples in full set commanding a premium. Given the discontinuation and the dial's direct lineage to Stella-era Day-Dates, downward price pressure looks unlikely.