Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic spotted wearing Rolex

Zlatan Ibrahimovic turned heads at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin last night—not only for his towering presence courtside but for the blaze of colour on his wrist. The Swedish striker, currently one of football's most recognisable faces as a forward for AC Milan, wore the Rolex Daytona Rainbow in 18kt Everose gold, reference 116595RBOW, a watch that stops conversations in any room it enters.

The 116595RBOW sits at the extreme end of Rolex's Daytona lineage. Based on the 40mm Daytona case in Rolex's proprietary 18kt Everose gold alloy—an in-house formula engineered to resist the fading that affects standard rose gold—the watch is powered by the Calibre 4130, Rolex's self-winding chronograph movement featuring a column wheel, vertical clutch, and a 72-hour power reserve. Its COSC-certified precision is almost beside the point when the eye is drawn immediately to the dial surround: 36 baguette-cut sapphires, graduated in a full spectral sequence from deep violet through red, are individually hand-set into the bezel. A further 11 baguette sapphires in matching rainbow graduation mark the hours on the black ceramic dial. Total gem-setting work on a single piece runs to hundreds of hours.

The reference was introduced in 2012 and has never been easy to acquire through authorised dealers. Rolex produces it in strictly limited numbers, and waiting lists at boutiques have historically stretched years. That scarcity, combined with the craftsmanship intensive gem-setting, has driven secondary market values to extraordinary levels—a multiple of four or five times the £92,100 official UK retail price is now the norm, not the exception.

Ibrahimovic is a known watch enthusiast whose collection reflects his no-understatement approach to life. Choosing the Rainbow Daytona for a televised, high-attendance sporting event is a deliberate statement. The watch reads across a stadium, which suits a man who has spent two decades commanding attention on football's biggest stages.

On the current grey market, the Rolex Daytona Rainbow 116595RBOW trades at approximately $565,000—a figure that underscores just how decisively collector demand has outpaced Rolex's supply. For buyers who can locate one, condition and originality of the sapphire setting are paramount considerations. For everyone else, it remains one of the most aspirational references in modern watchmaking.