Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Karim Benzema spotted wearing Rolex

Karim Benzema was recently photographed wearing a Rolex Day-Date 36 in 18K yellow gold, reference 128238, featuring a factory ombré green dial set with eight diamond hour markers and two baguette-cut diamonds at 6 and 9 o'clock. The sighting adds another serious entry to what is already one of football's most-watched wrists.

The Day-Date 36 ref. 128238 sits at the heart of Rolex's presidential lineup. Introduced as part of the 2019 generation of 36mm Day-Dates, it replaced the outgoing ref. 118238 and brought meaningful technical upgrades: the calibre 3255 movement, Rolex's flagship manufacture self-winding mechanism, delivers a 70-hour power reserve, a Chronergy escapement for roughly 15 percent greater efficiency, and a certification to the new Superlative Chronometer standard of ±2 seconds per day — well beyond COSC requirements. The case and President bracelet are both rendered in Rolex's own Oystersteel-adjacent 18K yellow gold, finished to the marque's exacting standards.

The dial configuration here is where collector interest concentrates. Rolex introduced ombré dials — graduating from a deep saturated tone at the centre to a lighter hue at the periphery — as a showcase for its in-house dial manufacture in Chêne-Bourg. The green variant has proven particularly desirable, carrying associations with Rolex's broader green colour identity while offering genuine visual depth that photographs and reads on the wrist very differently under changing light. The combination of round brilliant and baguette diamond indexes is a factory option, meaning every stone is set, aligned, and certified by Rolex before the watch leaves Geneva.

Benzema has long favoured yellow gold Rolex references, a preference consistent with his broader aesthetic — overt, confident, and technically impeccable, qualities that map neatly onto the Day-Date's own brand mythology. The Day-Date has been Rolex's statement piece since 1956, worn by heads of state and cultural figures who understood that restraint and luxury are not mutually exclusive. Benzema wears it without apology.

On the market, the ref. 128238 in this diamond dial configuration commands a meaningful premium over list. Official retail sits at approximately $40,200, but grey-market demand — driven by allocated supply and the enduring desirability of the ombré green dial — pushes current transaction prices to roughly $64,000, representing a near 60 percent premium. For a watch this specific, that spread is unlikely to compress soon.