Ballon d’Or Watch Lineup: Retail vs. Market Value
| Wearer | Brand & Model | Retail Price | Market Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Kane | Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Sapphire 126599TSA | $145,000 | $1.14M to $1.40M |
| Lamine Yamal | Richard Mille Extra Flat Rose Gold (RM 67-01) | $145,000 | $230,000 to $260,000 |
| Burna Boy | Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph (5980/1R-001) | $106,000 (Discontinued) | $190,000 to $220,000 |
| Ronaldo Nazario | H. Moser Endeavour Tourbillon Vantablack (1804-0403) | $85,000 | $68,000 to $78,000 |
| Ousmane Dembele | Richard Mille Manual Winding Quartz TPT (RM 55-01 / 055) | $125,000 | $360,000 to $400,000 |
| French Montana | Richard Mille White Ceramic & Diamond (RM 07-01) | $165,000 | $210,000 to $240,000 |
| Thierry Henry | Patek Philippe Nautilus (DiW Carbon) (5711/DiW) | $69,000 (Custom) | $65,000 to $75,000 |
| Rodri | IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (IW503406) | $46,700 | $34,000 to $39,000 |
| Luis Figo | Hublot Classic Fusion Chrono King Gold (521.ox.7081.lr) | $33,600 | $22,000 to $26,000 |
| Kylian Mbappe | Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo 38mm (yellow gold) | $30,900 | $28,000 to $31,000 |
Harry Kane: Rolex Cosmograph Daytona (126599TSA)
Harry Kane scored 73 goals for club and country to become the first English Ballon d’Or winner since Michael Owen in 2001. He collected both the main trophy and the Gerd Muller Trophy wearing an off-catalog Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. Rolex keeps the Reference 126599TSA off its public website and sells it only to VIP clients for $145,000. Secondary dealers trade the watch for up to £1 million ($1.4 million).
The 40mm white gold case holds a bezel with 36 baguette-cut blue sapphires. Another 56 brilliant-cut diamonds line the lugs and crown guards. The dial uses natural silver-sheen volcanic obsidian stone with blue sapphire hour markers and silver-ringed subdials. It has an automatic Caliber 4131 movement, which has a 72-hour power reserve, one hour short of Kane’s 73-goal season.
Rolex makes fewer than a few dozen obsidian-and-sapphire Daytonas a year. Kane’s watch gained nearly $1 million in value the moment he left the boutique.
Lamine Yamal: Richard Mille RM 67-01 Automatic Extra Flat
Nineteen-year-old Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal won the Men’s Young Talent of the Year award and finished third in the Ballon d’Or voting. He wore an 18k rose gold Richard Mille RM 67-01 on a custom baby-pink strap. Yamal swapped the factory black rubber band for a pink Velcro strap to match the pink Chanel feather brooch on his lapel.
Most Richard Mille cases measure over 14mm thick and catch on dress shirt cuffs. The RM 67-01 solves this with a thin 7.75mm profile that slides under a tuxedo sleeve. It runs on the in-house Caliber CRMA6, a 3.6mm-thick skeletonized automatic movement built from grade 5 titanium with a solid platinum rotor.
A vertical date window is at 5 o’clock, while a function indicator between 1 and 2 o’clock shows winding (W), date (D), or hand-setting (H) positions. The RM 67-01 is Richard Mille’s top black-tie watch. It trades at nearly 80% above retail because factory can’t meet demand for thin tonneau cases.
Burna Boy: Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph (5980/1R-001)
Nigerian star Burna Boy, whose song “Big 7” is Harry Kane’s favorite pre-match track, gave Kane a standing ovation before handing the Socrates Award to Bukayo Saka. For the ceremony, he wore a solid 18k rose gold Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph Reference 5980/1R-001. Patek Philippe discontinued this model in early 2024, making its secondary market value near $200,000.
The heavy 40.5mm gold case and integrated bracelet stood out against Burna Boy’s black velvet dinner jacket. Instead of splitting stopwatch readings across three small dials, Patek’s automatic Caliber CH 28-520 C combines the 60-minute and 12-hour counters into one bullseye subdial at 6 o’clock.
Its flyback mechanism lets the owner stop, reset, and restart the timer with one push of the bottom button. Patek dropped all rose gold 5980 models from its catalog in 2024. Full-gold bracelet references like the 5980/1R-001 remain blue-chip assets.
Ronaldo Nazario: H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack
Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario skipped mainstream sports models for an independent Swiss dress piece: the H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack (1804-0403).
The dial wears a coat of Vantablack, an astrophysical material made of carbon nanotubes that absorbs 99.965% of visible light. Under the London Palladium stage lights, the dial reflected zero glare. That black backdrop made the one-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock look suspended in mid-air.
Moser removes all brand logos and hour markers from its Concept line, pairing the 40mm 5N red gold case with the automatic HMC 804 movement and a double flat hairspring. Independent dress watches trade below retail on the secondary market, but Vantablack Moser pieces signal deep watch knowledge over hype-chasing.
Ousmane Dembele: Richard Mille RM 55-01 / RM 055
Defending 2025 winner Ousmane Dembele finished 7th in the 2026 voting while Paris Saint-Germain won Men’s Club of the Year. He paired his dark brown tuxedo and sunglasses with a stark white Richard Mille RM 055 (also cataloged as the RM 55-01 Manual Winding).
Built with golfer Bubba Watson to survive club-head impacts, the manual-winding Caliber RMUL2 movement sits on grade 5 titanium bridges. Those bridges handle shocks over 5,000 Gs. Watchmakers mill the front bezel from White Quartz TPT by stacking 600 layers of silica fibers soaked in white resin and heating them at 120 degrees Celsius under 6 bars of pressure.
Quartz TPT resists UV yellowing and surface scratches. Because it stays bright white for decades, the RM 055 triples its original retail price.
French Montana: Richard Mille RM 07-01 White Ceramic & Rose Gold
Rapper French Montana matched his white tuxedo jacket with a white ceramic Richard Mille RM 07-01. Although Richard Mille lists the RM 07-01 as a women’s watch, male artists and athletes wear its mid-size 45.66mm x 31.40mm tonneau case as a compact red-carpet dress piece.
Montana’s watch pairs a scratch-proof ATZ white ceramic bezel and caseback with a brushed 18k rose gold middle caseband. The center of the openworked dial has a white mother-of-pearl insert framed by pave-set diamonds. This RM watch has the automatic Caliber CRMA2 movement with an adjustable variable-geometry rotor. Male celebrities buying mid-size RM 07-01 watches pushed secondary prices for diamond-set ceramic models past $220,000.
Thierry Henry: Patek Philippe Nautilus Forged Carbon by DiW
Thierry Henry co-hosted the 2026 London ceremony alongside Kate Scott. On stage, he wore a blacked-out Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 customized by Designa Individual Watches (DiW) in Antwerp.
Patek Philippe does not make carbon fiber cases, and modifying a factory Patek voids its Geneva warranty. DiW strips a steel Nautilus 5711 down to its movement. The workshop then replaces the steel case, octagonal bezel, and bracelet with high-density forged carbon, cutting the total weight below 60 grams.
Holding a microphone under bright broadcast lights for three hours, Henry chose matte forged carbon to eliminate camera glare. That practicality comes at a cost: a modified DiW Nautilus trades for less than an untouched factory steel 5711 ($110,000+).
Rodri: IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (IW503406)
2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri stuck to his low-key style in London. He wore a traditional complication on leather: the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar in 18k rose gold with a silver-plated dial and brown Santoni alligator strap.
Watchmaker Kurt Klaus designed IWC’s perpetual calendar in the 1980s. His gear train links the date, day, month, four-digit year window, and Double Moon phase so the owner sets every indicator through the winding crown alone. It requires no recessed case pushers. The watch tracks leap years until 2100 and loses one day of lunar accuracy every 577.5 years.
At $46,700 retail (and approx. $36,000 pre-owned), Rodri’s IWC costs a fraction of a Richard Mille while packing far more mechanical calendar engineering.
Luis Figo: Hublot Classic Fusion Racing Grey Chronograph King Gold
2000 Ballon d’Or winner Luis Figo attended the London gala wearing a 45mm Hublot Classic Fusion Racing Grey Chronograph in 18k King Gold (Reference 521.OX.7081.LR) on a lined rubber and alligator strap. Figo holds an official Hublot ambassador contract, which requires him to wear the Swiss watchmaker at major football ceremonies.
Hublot’s proprietary 18k King Gold alloy mixes copper and platinum into standard gold. This formula creates a deeper red shade and prevents surface tarnishing over time.
The satin-brushed case frames a sunray grey dial with twin chronograph registers at 3 and 9 o’clock, a date window at 6 o’clock, and six H-shaped titanium bezel screws. It has an automatic HUB1143 chronograph caliber movement with a 42-hour power reserve.
Hublot produces Classic Fusion models in higher numbers than off-catalog Rolex pieces, Figo’s watch trades around $24,000 on the secondary market, which is around 28% below its $33,600 retail tag.
Kylian Mbappe: Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo Yellow Gold (38mm)
2026 Ballon d’Or runner-up Kylian Mbappe also wore a gold Hublot on a black rubber strap as part of his brand ambassador deal. Instead of an oversized sports chronograph, the Real Madrid striker chose the 2026 Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo Yellow Gold in a compact 38mm case.
Priced at $30,900, this vintage-sized 38mm watch revives Carlo Crocco’s original 1980 Hublot porthole design. It pairs a satin-brushed 18k yellow gold case and six H-shaped titanium bezel screws with an uncluttered matte black dial. At 6 o’clock is the historic “MDM” logo, a direct nod to Marie-Daniele Montandon and Hublot’s founding company, MDM Geneve.
At 9.85mm thick, it sat flat under Mbappe’s tuxedo cuff. Mbappe wearing a 38mm three-hand dress watch, the smallest case on the red carpet, confirms the industry shift back toward vintage 1980s case proportions.
Watch Trends from the 2026 London Gala
The $1M+ Off-Catalog Gap: Unsponsored players (Kane, Yamal, Dembele) wore watches trading at 79% to 865% above retail. Brand ambassadors (Mbappe, Figo) wore catalog pieces under $35,000.
Precious Metals Over Steel: Seven of the ten watches used rose, red, King, or yellow gold. Precious metals have replaced stainless steel sports watches for black-tie football galas.
Functional Tailoring Choices: From Henry’s anti-glare carbon case for stage hosting to Yamal’s thin 7.75mm RM 67-01 sliding under a dress cuff, ergonomics shaped watch choices as much as price.
