Watch Paparazzi

Boxer Floyd Mayweather spotted wearing Rolex

Floyd Mayweather, the retired professional boxer who closed his career with a perfect 50-0 record — the finest undefeated ledger in boxing history — has been spotted wearing what is arguably one of the most extravagant factory gem-set Rolex references ever catalogued: the Submariner 116649EMBR, known in collector circles as the 'Emerald Submariner.'

At its core, the reference 116649EMBR is built on the Submariner's familiar 40mm architecture, but every concession to utility has been replaced by deliberate luxury. The unidirectional rotating bezel, typically ceramic or aluminium on standard production models, is here set with 36 baguette-cut emeralds alternating with 12 diamonds — a lapidary exercise that requires individual stone selection and hand-setting by Rolex's in-house gem specialists. The 18k white gold case and bracelet provide the neutral foundation that allows the green stones to dominate visually. Inside, the calibre 3135 automatic movement — a 31-jewel, 28,800 vph workhorse with a 48-hour power reserve — keeps the complications honest, offering date display and Rolex's Parachrom hairspring for antimagnetic resilience.

The dial treatment on the 116649EMBR is where the specification becomes genuinely remarkable. A full pavé diamond surface serves as the base, with eight baguette emerald hour markers replacing the standard luminous plots. The result is a dial that has almost no practical relationship to the Submariner's original 1953 brief as a professional diver's instrument — and that is entirely the point. Rolex produces these gem-set references in very limited numbers, and the 116649EMBR rarely surfaces at retail. When it does appear, it commands a $342,000 list price, placing it firmly in the brand's haute joaillerie tier.

For collectors, the 'Emerald Submariner' occupies a specific and somewhat polarizing niche. Purists dismiss gem-set sports watches as a contradiction in terms; serious jewelry watch collectors, however, recognize the technical difficulty of setting baguette stones uniformly across a curved bezel without compromising the case's water resistance architecture. That tension — functional icon repurposed as wearable sculpture — is precisely what makes the reference interesting as an object.

Mayweather's relationship with extreme-value timepieces is well documented and consistent with the 116649EMBR. On the grey market, this reference trades at or above its $342,000 list price given its scarcity, making it both a credible store of value and an unmistakable status signal — two criteria that appear to guide much of 'Money' Mayweather's collecting logic.