Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Marco Verratti spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Marco Verratti was photographed celebrating his birthday wearing one of the most sought-after watches to emerge from the Royal Oak family in recent memory — the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 'Jumbo' 50th Anniversary in 18K pink gold, reference 16202OR, with its distinctive smoked grey Petite Tapisserie dial.

Released in 2022 to commemorate five decades of the Royal Oak, the 16202OR is a precise re-edition of the original 'A-series' Jumbo from 1972. It retains the 39mm case diameter and just 8.1mm thickness that made Genta's octagonal-bezel design so revolutionary — proportions that remain startling today. Powering the watch is the Calibre 7121, a manually wound movement with a 55-hour power reserve, visible through the exhibition caseback. Audemars Piguet deliberately chose a hand-wound movement to mirror the spirit of the original, and the finishing — bevelled bridges, côtes de Genève, circular-grained mainplate — meets the manufacture's highest standards. The smoked grey dial, with its three-dimensional Petite Tapisserie guilloche, shifts between dark charcoal and warm brown depending on the light, an effect that the pink gold case amplifies considerably.

For collectors, the 16202OR occupies a specific and rarified position. The stainless steel sibling, reference 16202ST, drew most of the public attention at launch, but the pink gold version carries its own gravity — it references the earliest gold Jumbo variants from the mid-1970s and, critically, production numbers were extremely limited. Waitlists at authorised dealers closed almost immediately, and the watch has never been freely available at retail. It sits at the convergence of historical authenticity and contemporary scarcity, which is precisely where collector demand concentrates.

Verratti, who built his career at Paris Saint-Germain before moving to Al-Arabi in Qatar, has long been associated with serious horology. His choice of the 16202OR for a personal milestone rather than a flashier complication speaks to a collector's sensibility — this is a watch chosen for what it means within the industry, not merely what it signals from a distance.

At a list price of $74,100, the Royal Oak 16202OR was already premium territory. On the secondary market, however, confirmed transaction prices have reached $230,000 and above, a premium of roughly three times retail that shows no meaningful sign of compression. For a watch that cannot be bought new, that number is a market verdict, not an anomaly.