Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Neymar Jr spotted wearing Rolex

Neymar Jr was photographed wearing a Rolex Yacht-Master 40 in 18K Everose gold ahead of PSG's UEFA Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund — one of European football's highest-profile club fixtures. The sighting placed a watch retailing north of £37,000 in a context most collectors rarely consider appropriate kit, which is precisely why it attracted attention.

The reference 126655 sits at the pinnacle of the Yacht-Master 40 family. Its 40mm Everose gold Oyster case houses Rolex's calibre 3235, a manufacture movement featuring the brand's proprietary Chronergy escapement, a 70-hour power reserve, and Parachrom hairspring — technical credentials that match the case's precious-metal ambition. The Cerachrom bezel insert, rendered here in pink Cerachrom ceramic, offers the same scratch and UV resistance found on Rolex sport references, an understated engineering detail on an otherwise maximalist watch. The OysterFlex bracelet — a black elastomer strap with a flexible titanium and steel blade core — was introduced specifically to give Rolex sport watches in precious metal a contemporary alternative to the traditional metal bracelet.

What elevates the 126655 above standard Everose Yacht-Master variants is its factory diamond pavé dial. Rolex's in-house gem-setting workshop, the Atelier de Joaillerie, individually hand-sets each diamond, a labour-intensive process that makes these dials genuinely difficult to produce at volume. This is not aftermarket work — a distinction that matters enormously to serious collectors and is central to the reference's desirability.

Neymar Jr has long operated at the intersection of football and luxury goods. His wrist game includes Richard Mille tonneau pieces and high-jewellery timepieces from multiple maisons, but spotting the PSG forward in a Rolex — and specifically the 126655 — is a reminder that Geneva's most commercially dominant brand retains genuine aspirational power even in a market saturated with independent watchmakers.

On the grey market, the Rolex Yacht-Master 126655 trades at or slightly above retail, a relatively stable position for a full-gold, jewellery-dialled Rolex that lacks the speculative heat of a steel sports reference. Collectors treat it as a wearable luxury asset rather than a flip candidate — which, given Neymar's track record of actually wearing his watches, seems exactly right.