Inside Lionel Messi's $7.8 Million Watch Collection

This is the grail. Patek and Tiffany & Co. made just 170 examples of the 5711/1A-018 in 2021 to mark 170 years of their retail partnership, each one carrying a co-branded Tiffany blue lacquered dial under the Patek signature. The first piece sold at Phillips New York that December for $6.5 million, and clean examples now trade near $2 million on the secondary market. Messi has been photographed with the Tiffany blue dial peeking out from under a dress cuff, the kind of understated flex only a handful of people on the planet can make.

The 5270P is Patek at the very top of its game, a perpetual calendar chronograph in platinum that stacks day, date, month, leap year, and moon phase onto one dial without ever feeling crowded. Messi's example wears the coveted green dial, a color Patek reserves for its most desirable modern releases. He wore it to collect his FIFA Best award, pairing high horology with a black tie moment, which is exactly the occasion this watch was built for. It is the dress watch in a collection otherwise full of sports models.

The 5968A is the sportier, chronograph-equipped Aquanaut, and Messi's runs the high-contrast orange rubber strap that made the reference famous. The brown embossed dial and steel cushion case give it a rugged, everyday character that fits his off-duty Inter Miami uniform of t-shirts and travel bags. Where the Nautilus is the formal Patek, the Aquanaut is the one he actually lives in. He has been a steady Aquanaut wearer for years, which says a lot about where his real taste sits.

The most valuable Rolex Messi owns and one of the rarest off-catalogue Daytonas in existence. The "Barbie" pairs a pink dial with a baguette pink sapphire bezel set in yellow gold, finished on a matching pink strap, and it was offered only to a tiny circle of elite VIP clients. Reports put production around 10 examples, with the market north of $1 million. The pink theme also happens to mirror Inter Miami's colors, which makes it the perfect over-the-top trophy for the GOAT's Miami chapter.

The "Rainbow" is the watch that turned a polarizing 2012 release into one of the most coveted Rolexes ever made. Messi's runs the 18ct Everose gold case set with 36 graduated multicolored sapphires around the bezel, matching sapphire hour markers, and diamonds across the lugs and crown guards, all on the Calibre 4130. He has been photographed in the rose gold version with both a black dial and a diamond-paved dial, suggesting more than one Rainbow has passed through the family rotation. It is the loudest watch in the collection and he wears it like it is nothing.

A yellow gold Daytona carrying a genuine turquoise stone dial under a full baguette diamond bezel, one of the gem-set configurations Rolex never lists in its public catalog. The natural stone dial means no two examples are identical, each one veined slightly differently, which is part of what makes these so collectible. Against the black and diamond subdials, the turquoise reads almost electric. This is the kind of watch you only get a call about if Rolex already considers you a major client.

Nicknamed the "Giraffe" for its diamond-paved dial laid out in a brown and champagne animal-print pattern, this off-catalogue Everose Daytona sits firmly in Rolex's hidden VIP territory. A baguette diamond bezel frames the wild dial, and the whole thing rides a brown strap that ties the warm tones together. It is one of the more eccentric pieces Rolex has ever produced, and exactly the kind of curiosity that ends up on the wrist of someone who already owns everything obvious. Messi wore his courtside at a Miami concert.

The 126529LN is the piece collectors point to first. Rolex released this white gold Daytona in June 2023 for the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, then discontinued it after roughly eight months. It introduced three firsts for a Daytona: the in-house Calibre 4132, a red "100" marking on the black Cerachrom bezel, and an open caseback. Pre-discontinuation it traded around $80,000 to $95,000; clean examples now sit in the $220,000 to $280,000 range. One honest note: Antonela Roccuzzo, Messi's wife, has been photographed in the family's Le Mans too, so not every wristshot of this watch is his.

When Rolex discontinued the white gold Le Mans in 2024, it quietly followed with an off-catalogue 18ct yellow gold version, the 126528LN, identical in spirit and mechanics with only the metal changed. It too ran for just one year before being discontinued in 2025, keeping the Le Mans story short and sharp. The warm gold case amplifies the reverse-panda dial and the red bezel accent for a bolder look than its white gold sibling. Messi owning all three Le Mans metals is the clearest sign of how deep his Rolex access runs.

The final chapter of the Le Mans trilogy arrived in 2025 in Rolex's patented 18ct Everose gold, reference 126525LN, again sharing the same movement, open caseback, and red "100" detail as the white and yellow gold versions before it. With Watches and Wonders 2026 approaching, this Everose model is widely expected to be discontinued too, completing one of the shortest-lived multi-metal runs in modern Daytona history. Messi having all three is effectively a complete set of a watch most collectors will never see one of in the metal.

A fully iced white gold Submariner with a factory blue gradient dial, a baguette blue sapphire bezel, and diamond-set lugs and case sides. Messi was photographed wearing this one around his 34th birthday in June 2021, during his Paris-era pivot toward heavier gem-set pieces. It takes the most recognizable dive watch on Earth and reframes it as a piece of high jewelry, which is a very Messi move: take the icon, then turn it up. It remains one of the most valuable Submariner configurations Rolex has ever made.

The "Haribo" earns its candy nickname from the rainbow of baguette sapphires set into its Everose gold bezel, with a diamond at twelve. Against a glossy black dial on an Oysterflex strap, the colored stones pop like a packet of sweets, hence the name collectors gave it. It is one of the more playful gem-set Rolexes and a quieter cousin to the Rainbow Daytona, trading the chronograph for the cleaner Yacht-Master layout. Messi was caught wearing his courtside, the watch glinting under stadium lights.

The 40mm Day-Date 228235 in Everose gold carries a green aventurine dial nicknamed "Matcha" for its rich, speckled green tone, set off by baguette diamond hour markers. The Day-Date is Rolex's "President's watch," the reference reserved for heads of state and the genuinely accomplished, which makes it fitting on the wrist of a man with a World Cup and eight Ballons d'Or. Messi has worn this one through Argentina celebrations, pairing national-team kit with a watch that quietly signals status. It is one of the warmer, more wearable pieces in the rotation.

The most accessible watch in the collection and proof that Messi's taste is not only about price. The 41mm steel Oyster Perpetual 134300 wears the colorful "Celebration" motif dial, sometimes called the "Jubilee," covered in bubbles in Rolex's signature palette. It became one of the hardest steel Rolexes to get at retail despite a relatively modest price, driven almost entirely by the playful dial. Messi has worn his with Argentina training kit, mate cup in hand, looking like any other fan who happens to own the best watch in the room.

The most technically serious AP in the collection, the 26585XT combines a fully openworked perpetual calendar movement with a titanium and platinum case and a blue accents. Day, date, month, moon phase, and leap year all float over a skeletonized caliber you can read straight through. It is the high-horology counterweight to the playful Concept pieces, the watch that proves Messi's AP taste runs deeper than the headline collabs. He has worn it on the carpet in head-to-toe pink, letting the blue openwork do the talking.

AP's first collaboration with artist KAWS, the "Companion" Concept Tourbillon places the artist's skull-headed cartoon figure at the center of a 43mm titanium case, hands and face pressed against the sapphire crystal above a flying tourbillon. There are no traditional hands; time reads off peripheral titanium indicators on the rim of the dial. Limited to 250 pieces at a CHF 200,000 retail, it is wearable pop art at the highest level of finish. Messi wearing one puts him in the small overlap of football, watch collecting, and the contemporary art world.

A blacked-out Royal Oak Offshore in matte ceramic with a skeletonized tourbillon movement on display, this is the stealth-mode AP in Messi's lineup. The black ceramic case and rubber strap strip away all the shine and let the openworked architecture and the tourbillon at six do the work. It is the more rugged, sport-leaning member of his Royal Oak group, built for the same off-duty wear as his Aquanaut. Where the KAWS is loud and the Perpetual Calendar is formal, this one is pure modern toughness.

Part of AP's Marvel partnership, the "Spider-Man" Concept Flying Tourbillon sets a hand-painted, three-dimensional Spider-Man figure across the openworked dial, perched above a flying tourbillon. It was a polarizing release that proved how far AP would push the Concept platform into pop culture, arriving just before the KAWS edition in the same lineage. For Messi, who plays in Miami and lives in the celebrity-superhero crossover space, it fits the persona perfectly. Caught on his wrist between matches, it is the most overtly fun watch in the entire collection.