Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Simon Mignolet spotted wearing Rolex

Simon Mignolet, the Belgian goalkeeper who kept goal for Liverpool FC during some of the club's most turbulent Premier League seasons, was recently spotted wearing one of the most sought-after sports watches in the world: the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in stainless steel with a black Cerachrom bezel, reference 116500LN.

Introduced at Baselworld 2016, the Rolex Daytona ref. 116500LN represented a significant engineering milestone for the Geneva manufacture. For the first time, Rolex fitted the steel Daytona with a unidirectional-rotating bezel crafted from Cerachrom, its proprietary ceramic compound that is virtually scratchproof and highly resistant to UV fading. Powering the watch is the in-house calibre 4130, a column-wheel chronograph movement with a vertical clutch and a 72-hour power reserve — a movement widely regarded by watchmakers as one of the most robust and accurate chronograph ebauches in series production. The case measures 40mm, water resistant to 100 metres, and is fitted with an Oyster bracelet with the Oysterclasp.

From a collector standpoint, the ref. 116500LN occupies a rare position: it is simultaneously a mainstream Rolex icon and a genuinely difficult watch to acquire through authorised dealers. Since its launch, waiting lists at official retailers have stretched from months into years, a situation that shows little sign of easing. The black-dial variant in particular — which Mignolet appears to be wearing — carries a slight premium over its white-dial counterpart on the secondary market.

Mignolet, who later moved from Liverpool to Club Brugge and established himself as one of Belgium's most decorated domestic-league goalkeepers, has always maintained a relatively low public profile off the pitch. His choice of the Rolex Daytona 116500LN is consistent with a generation of European footballers who have embraced Rolex's sportier references as a discreet but universally legible marker of taste.

At UK retail, the Rolex Daytona ref. 116500LN lists at £9,100. On the grey market, however, demand consistently pushes prices to roughly two to three times that figure, making this one of the clearest examples in modern watchmaking of the gap between list price and real-world market value.