Watch Paparazzi

Boxer Floyd Mayweather spotted wearing Hublot

Floyd Mayweather has built a watch collection that functions less as a hobby and more as a parallel career, and the piece on his wrist in this latest sighting represents one of the most extreme examples of haute horlogerie produced in the past decade. The undefeated champion was spotted wearing the Hublot MP-05 'La Ferrari' Tourbillon Sapphire, reference 905.JX.0001.RT — a watch limited to just 20 examples globally and carrying a UK list price in the region of £500,000.

The MP-05 LaFerrari was originally developed in close collaboration with the Scuderia Ferrari design team and debuted in 2013 as a movement-forward statement piece. Its architecture is unlike anything else in Hublot's catalog: eleven mainspring barrels are coupled in series along the vertical axis of the case, generating a manually wound power reserve of 50 days. A dedicated winding tool — itself resembling a miniature Formula 1 pit gun — is required to tension the movement fully. The movement beats at 28,800 vph and incorporates a flying tourbillon positioned at six o'clock, compensating for gravitational error across the watch's natural wearing position.

The 905.JX.0001.RT variant escalates the concept entirely. The case, measuring 57.7mm in length, is machined entirely from scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, rendering the case flanks, bezel, and caseback all but invisible. The effect is singular: the movement appears to float on the wrist, suspended in air. Producing the sapphire enclosure requires hundreds of hours of machining and polishing — sapphire's extreme hardness makes it one of the most difficult materials to work with in case manufacturing. With only 20 pieces allocated worldwide, legitimate examples surface almost never.

For Mayweather, this is consistent territory. He has previously worn Richard Mille split-seconds chronographs, bejeweled Patek Philippe references, and statement pieces from across the ultra-luxury spectrum. The MP-05 LaFerrari Sapphire, however, occupies a category of its own — it is not a gem-set trophy piece but a legitimately complex, mechanically extraordinary instrument that rewards technical knowledge as much as financial commitment.

On the secondary market, the MP-05 LaFerrari Tourbillon Sapphire rarely appears, and when it does, estimates place transaction values well above retail given the 20-piece production ceiling. Collectors pursuing this reference are competing in a near-impossible market. For everyone else, Mayweather's wrist remains the most accessible view they are likely to get.