Rapper 2 Chainz spotted wearing a Rolex

2 Chainz — born Tauheed Epps, the Atlanta rapper known as much for his unapologetic luxury lifestyle as his music — was photographed wearing a Rolex Day-Date II that exemplifies the 'President' watch's cultural staying power. Captured mid-smoke with a city skyline behind him, the rapper's wrist carries one of Rolex's most storied references, layered with gold chain bracelets in characteristically maximalist fashion.

The watch in question is the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date II reference 218348, produced from roughly 2008 to 2015 before the Day-Date 40 superseded it. The 41mm case — larger than the original 36mm Day-Date — is crafted entirely in 18K yellow gold and rides on the integrated President bracelet, itself an icon first introduced alongside the original Day-Date in 1956. The bezel is factory-set with 42 round brilliant-cut diamonds, a specification Rolex designates in its catalogue with the suffix 'ng' for the diamond bezel variant. The champagne dial features a mix of baguette and brilliant-cut diamond hour markers at 6 and 9 o'clock, with applied gold batons elsewhere — a configuration known internally as the 'diamond and baguette' dial. Powering it is the calibre 3156, a COSC-certified self-winding movement with a 48-hour power reserve and Rolex's paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring.

The Day-Date's collector significance is difficult to overstate. Rolex marketed it explicitly to world leaders and cultural tastemakers — Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dwight D. Eisenhower all wore the reference at pivotal historical moments. In hip-hop culture the 'Presidential' nickname stuck, and by the 2000s it had become a de facto benchmark of rap success.

2 Chainz has built a watch collection consistent with his public persona — dense in gold and diamonds, unapologetically showy. The Day-Date II 218348 sits at the apex of that philosophy: a factory Rolex that arrives pre-jewelled, requiring no aftermarket modification to command attention.

On the secondary market, all-factory diamond-bezel Day-Date II references in yellow gold trade at a meaningful premium to grey-market list equivalents, typically ranging from $45,000 to $60,000 depending on box-and-papers condition and dial configuration. The reference was discontinued following the 2015 introduction of the Day-Date 40, which has only strengthened collector interest in clean examples of the 218348.