{"id":242801,"date":"2025-09-21T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242801\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T01:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:45:11","slug":"roger-federer-wore-the-rarest-type-of-rolex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242801\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Federer Wore the Rarest Type of Rolex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer<\/a> made quite an entrance at the Laver Cup in San Francisco this week, wearing a handsome tux with matching shades, but he reserved most of his heat for the wrist. The tennis legend wore a blue sapphire-studded, obsidian-dialed, white-gold Rolex Daytona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a Rolex Testimonee, of course, Federer has access to all the good stuff, from the unquestionably rare \u201cLe Mans\u201d Daytona<\/a> to the positively un-gettable off-catalog pieces. This ref. 126599TSA is of the latter type: It\u2019s one of those watches that\u2019s not publicized by the brand, so finding accurate information about it is only really possible when an important client receives an allocation and posts about it. (Or when Rolex<\/a> puts one on your wrist. Hey, as Mel Brooks famously said: \u201cIt\u2019s good to be the king!\u201d) But the gist of it is this: We\u2019re talking about a 40-mm white gold Daytona with all the usual refinements\u2014screw-down pushers, Oyster bracelet, etc.\u2014but with lots of special treatments.<\/p>\n

First of all, there\u2019s the glut of 36 gleaming, baguette-cut blue sapphires ringing the bezel; then there are the 54 brilliant-cut diamonds adorning the mid-case and lugs. Then there\u2019s that stunning dial: Made of silver obsidian\u2014which forms when lava cools nearly instantaneously without the time to form the crystal structures present in many other types of rock\u2014it has a glass-like sheen that changes subtly from grey to black to silver depending upon the light. Atop this incredible background are applied hour indices set with yet more baguette-cut blue sapphires, which are complemented with blue typography within the chronograph registers. Within the watch beats the automatic Rolex cal. 4131 automatic movement with a 72-hour power reserve, and finishing the package is the brand\u2019s famed Oyster bracelet in white gold.<\/p>\n

While this piece was technically revealed to select parties during the Watches and Wonders<\/a> trade show in early 2025, there was no fanfare around it. The Crown doesn\u2019t share news publicly and the piece wasn\u2019t shown to journalists. That\u2019s because this is what we call an \u201coff-catalog\u201d piece<\/a>: Effectively, it means that this is indeed a serially-produced watch with factory-set gems, but that it doesn\u2019t appear on the Crown\u2019s website; it\u2019s not spoken about; etc. TL;DR: If your last name ain\u2019t \u201cFederer,\u201d \u201cDiCaprio<\/a>,\u201d \u201cMayer<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cWahlberg<\/a>,\u201d good luck getting an allocation.<\/p>\n

Typically, it\u2019s on the most ornate gem-set pieces that carry this type of designation: Daytonas with leopard-print dials or Day-Dates<\/a> with higher carat weights than the Crown Jewels. These watches are incredibly labor-intensive to make, as sourcing and fitting gems with the desired degree of flawlessness and uniformity of shape and color is daunting. Furthermore, obsidian is a naturally occurring material, and shaving thin slices of it to a uniform size and thickness means a certain percentage of failure. Each one of these extremely rare watches is thus technically unique, making it even more special.<\/p>\n

Tom Brady\u2019s Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 5980\/1400R<\/p>\n

Taking a page out of Federer\u2019s book, Tom Brady<\/a> wore a gem-set take on the Patek Philippe Nautilus<\/a> to the Eagles-Chiefs game in Kansas City. Measuring 40.5 mm in 18K rose gold, it features the model\u2019s signature porthole-inspired shape and matching, integrated bracelet but adds 893 round-cut and 182 baguette-cut diamonds\u2014roughly 20 carats\u2019 worth, for those keeping score. Beyond all the shiny rocks, it also boasts an interesting chronograph<\/a> configuration. The dual pump pushers control a single sundial above 6 o\u2019clock, displaying both 12-hour and 60-minute scales, while a date window at 3 o\u2019clock adds further utility. The entire shebang is powered by Patek\u2019s in-house cal. CH 28-520 C automatic movement.<\/p>\n

Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s Rolex Land-Dweller<\/p>\n

Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a> strapped on the Rolex Land-Dweller<\/a> during an event in Mexico City for his new film One Battle After Another<\/a>. Equipped with a flat, integrated take on the Jubilee bracelet and a honeycomb-pattern dial, Rolex\u2019s newest model boasts the cal. 7135, a movement featuring several exciting new technologies: Chief amongst these is Dynapulse, a type of hybrid escapement that melds the best from the traditional Swiss lever escapement and Breguet\u2019s natural escapement, adding efficiency and increasing resistance to shocks and magnetism. It\u2019s also Rolex\u2019s first hi-beat movement, vibrating at 5 Hz (36,000 vph) as opposed to the more typical 4 Hz.<\/p>\n

Danielle Fishel\u2019s Patek Philippe ref. 3319<\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed horological detectives might\u2019ve picked up on a particularly sparkly bit of jewelry gleaming from the wrist of Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel during her turn on Dancing with the Stars this week. In point of fact, this wasn\u2019t a mere bracelet, but rather the Patek Philippe<\/a> ref. 3319, a manually-wound cocktail watch fitted to a gorgeous 18K yellow gold woven bracelet. Measuring just 19 mm in diameter, it\u2019s the type of midcentury piece that collectors have been scooping up lately, which is why horological authority and expert vintage watch dealer Eric Wind<\/a> hooked Fishel up with one to wear during her performance. (Prices for these tend to hover in the $8 to $20K mark\u2026much more affordable than your average off-catalog Daytona!)<\/p>\n

Marlon Wayans\u2019 Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon<\/p>\n

As Monty Python once said: \u201cAnd now for something completely different.\u201d Witness Marlon Wayans<\/a> in a downright mesmerizing Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon at the premiere of Justin Tipping\u2019s Him<\/a>. (If you recognize this reference, it\u2019s because none other than Jay-Z wore one last year<\/a> not long after its debut.) Machined from black PVD-coated titanium in the shape of an engine, it not only tells the time and features a 30-second flying tourbillon<\/a>, but also includes a full automation sequence of a V16 engine block. (The watch isn\u2019t called \u201cTourbillon\u201d merely for the complication, but rather for the Bugatti model that carries the same horologically-inspired name.) List price? $340,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer made quite an entrance at the Laver Cup in San Francisco this week, wearing a handsome…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[13158,14265,62,1464,5096,67,132,68,53535,129471,1940],"class_list":{"0":"post-242801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-roger-federer","9":"tag-rolex","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-watches","17":"tag-watches-of-the-week","18":"tag-web"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115239762175292883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}