Footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic spotted wearing a Rolex

Zlatan Ibrahimovic watched AC Milan dispatch Napoli this weekend from the stands, and sharp-eyed observers on the touchline caught something arguably as compelling as the scoreline — a platinum Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 116506 on his wrist, its ice blue dial catching the stadium lights with quiet authority.

The Rolex Daytona 116506 occupies singular ground in the Swiss manufacture's catalogue. Unveiled at Baselworld 2013, it marked the first time Rolex produced the Daytona entirely in 950 platinum, a move that redefined the model's ceiling. The 40mm case houses the in-house calibre 4130, a column-wheel chronograph movement with a vertical clutch, 72-hour power reserve and a COSC-certified rate of -4/+6 seconds per day. The movement's architecture eliminated the horizontal clutch judder that plagued earlier Daytona ebauches and cemented the 4130 as one of the most respected chronograph calibres in production. The ice blue sunray-finish dial — a colour Rolex reserves exclusively for its platinum references — carries eight baguette-cut diamond hour markers at the remaining positions alongside applied Arabic numerals at 6 and 12. The chestnut-brown Cerachrom bezel in monobloc ceramic completes a palette that is both unconventional and precisely considered.

For collectors, the 116506 resonates on multiple levels. Its discontinuation — Rolex has since moved toward the updated 126500LN generation — means no new examples are entering the market through authorised dealers. Production volumes were always modest by Rolex standards, and the platinum Daytona with diamond markers was never an easy watch to source at retail even during its production run. That scarcity, combined with the intrinsic value of the platinum case and the complication, has driven grey-market prices well above six figures in both dollars and pounds sterling.

Ibrahimovic has long cultivated a watch collection that mirrors his outsized personality — grand gestures in precious metal rather than understated steel. The 116506 fits that profile perfectly: it is not a watch that needs to announce itself, yet it communicates exactly where it stands to anyone who recognises it. On the wrist of one of football's most decorated strikers, the pairing feels less like a flex and more like a natural alignment of two outsized reputations.

On the secondary market, the platinum Rolex Daytona 116506 with diamond markers now trades at approximately $150,000, a figure that reflects both the discontinued status and the sustained global appetite for Daytona references in precious metal. Retail list price, when it was available, sat at approximately $75,950 — meaning current grey-market premiums run at roughly double. For a watch that Rolex will not remake, that gap is unlikely to narrow.