Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Marco Verratti spotted wearing Patek Philippe

Courtside at Roland Garros, where tennis royalty convenes each spring, Marco Verratti made his own statement — not with a loud fashion piece, but with a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5990/1R-001 on his wrist. The PSG and Italy international was spotted at the 2022 French Open final wearing the rose gold iteration of one of Patek's most sophisticated sport watches, a choice that reveals a collector with clear convictions rather than someone simply reaching for the most hyped reference on the market.

The Nautilus 5990/1R centers on Caliber CH 28-520 C FUS, a self-winding movement developed entirely in-house and bearing the Patek Philippe Seal. It delivers a flyback chronograph — meaning the seconds hand resets and restarts with a single push rather than the traditional stop-reset-start sequence — alongside a Travel Time complication that allows the wearer to track home and local time simultaneously via dedicated pushers at 10 and 8 o'clock. A date display rounds out the dial. The movement runs at 28,800 vph with a 45-to-55-hour power reserve. Housed in a 40.5mm case in 18k rose gold with the iconic porthole-inspired octagonal bezel, the 5990/1R wears surprisingly lean on the wrist at just 13.25mm thick.

The sunburst blue dial is finished with the embossed horizontal Nautilus ribbing and applied rose gold hour markers — an aesthetic bridge between the dressy warmth of rose gold and the sporty DNA Gerald Genta encoded into the original 3700 back in 1976. Patek introduced this rose gold variant in 2021, a full decade after the reference debuted in steel as the 5990/1A, immediately positioning the 5990/1R as a collector's natural upgrade path.

Verratti has long demonstrated a preference for Patek Philippe, and the 5990/1R fits the profile of a footballer who travels constantly between European time zones. The Travel Time function is not marketing window dressing here — it has genuine daily utility for anyone living on charter flights between Paris, Rome, and Doha.

At a retail price of $106,452, the Nautilus 5990/1R sits well above its steel sibling and commands respect for the complexity it packages into a sports case. Grey-market premiums fluctuate, but demand for any rose gold Nautilus with a chronograph complication remains robust, and allocated boutique access is tightly controlled. For serious collectors, this reference represents the top of the Nautilus hierarchy short of tourbillon territory.