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Footballer Neymar Jr spotted wearing Rolex

Neymar Jr, Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian forward, was recently spotted wearing one of Rolex's most jewellery-forward complications: the Pearlmaster 39 in yellow gold, reference 86348SAJOR. The sighting reinforces the footballer's long-standing appetite for high-jewellery timepieces that sit well outside the sportswear-friendly steel sports watches favoured by many of his peers.

The Rolex Pearlmaster 39 ref. 86348SAJOR is built around a 39mm 18-carat yellow gold case — a size that bridges the brand's traditional Pearlmaster 34 and the broader 39mm offerings in the wider catalogue. The defining feature is the bezel, set with 48 baguette-cut sapphires hand-selected in varying shades of orange and yellow to produce a unified 'Cognac' gradient. The matching Cognac-toned dial carries diamond-set hour markers with additional diamonds at the 6 and 9 o'clock positions, lending the piece a deliberate asymmetry rarely seen in Rolex's gem-set range. Inside beats the calibre 3235, Rolex's in-house perpetual movement offering approximately 70 hours of power reserve, Chronergy escapement, and a Parachrom hairspring — serious mechanical credentials beneath all that gold.

The Pearlmaster line was introduced in 1992, conceived from the outset as Rolex's prestige jewellery watch — closer in spirit to a Van Cleef & Arpels creation than to a tool watch. The 39mm case size arrived as the collection evolved to accommodate male and gender-neutral audiences without abandoning its haute joaillerie DNA. Reference 86348SAJOR represents one of the more adventurous colour executions in the current Pearlmaster catalogue, and its baguette sapphire bezel commands considerable attention from gem-set collectors who prize the craft of stone matching above almost everything else.

Neymar has publicly worn Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Richard Mille references over the years, consistently gravitating toward pieces with strong visual presence. A full yellow gold Pearlmaster with an orange sapphire bezel is precisely that — impossible to overlook, and deliberately so for an athlete of his profile.

At an official retail price of $74,650, the Pearlmaster 39 ref. 86348SAJOR occupies a rarefied tier within the Rolex catalogue. On the secondary market, gem-set Rolex references in full yellow gold with exotic stone bezels have held value well, particularly those featuring matched baguette work, where condition of the stones is the primary price driver. Expect grey-market values to hover close to or modestly above retail given the piece's limited production and the sustained global demand for Rolex's top jewellery references.