Lionel Messi’s Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36: What It Is and What It Costs
The watch
Oyster Perpetual 36
Market price
$8,000
Lionel Messi arrived at an Argentina training session in Kansas City ahead of the 2026 World Cup wearing a steel Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 with a pink dial.
It is a deliberately modest choice for a player who could wear anything. No gold, no diamonds, no complications — a 36mm steel watch that tells the time and does nothing else. The only thing about it that is remotely loud is the colour of the dial.
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What it is
The Oyster Perpetual is the entry point to the Rolex range, and the most stripped-back watch the company makes. Steel case, steel bracelet, no date window, no rotating bezel. Inside is a self-winding movement certified as a chronometer, which is a Swiss accuracy standard rather than a marketing term.
Thirty-six millimetres is the middle size. Rolex makes this watch in 28, 31, 34, 36 and 41mm, and the 36 sits in the middle of that range deliberately — it is the size the brand considers unisex, and it wears smaller than most modern sports watches.
The pink dial is from a set of bright lacquer colours Rolex introduced across the Oyster Perpetual range in 2020: candy pink, turquoise, yellow, coral red, green. They were unexpected for a company known for black and silver dials, and they became the most in-demand watches Rolex produced in years.
How the dial is made
The colour is not paint on a metal disc. Rolex builds these dials in layers — a brass base receives six separate coats of lacquer, applied in a clean-room environment because a single speck of dust would show. The surface is then varnished and polished until the colour has depth rather than sitting flat.
After that the text is pad-printed on, and the raised hour markers and the crown at twelve are riveted to the dial by hand rather than glued. Only then does the finished dial go onto the movement.
It is a lot of process for something the size of a coin, and it is most of the reason these dials look the way they do in sunlight.
What it actually costs
The list price is around $6,400. The figure above is $8,000, and that gap is the interesting part.
Rolex sets a retail price, but almost nobody pays it for the coloured Oyster Perpetuals, because authorised dealers have long waiting lists and very little stock. What you actually encounter is the secondary market, where the pink dial trades meaningfully above list.
So the $8,000 is what the watch changes hands for, not what Rolex charges. The difference between those two numbers is not craftsmanship — it is scarcity, and it moves with demand.
Worth knowing if you are shopping: a pre-owned example in good condition is often the only realistic route to this watch, and it is not necessarily worse value than waiting years for a retail allocation.
Where to find one
A word we have used on every page of this site. Rolex is the most counterfeited watch brand in the world, and the Oyster Perpetual is among the most copied models. There is no cheap version of this watch — there are only fakes, and we will not link one.
If you want a Rolex, buy it from somewhere that authenticates. If you want a good watch at a reachable price, buy a good watch at a reachable price and let it be its own thing rather than an imitation of this one.
The rest of the outfit
The watch is the only expensive thing he is wearing. Everything else is Argentina training kit — a national team shirt, shorts, a bag over the shoulder.
We priced a full Messi outfit on this page if you want the rest of what he wears.
Which is a fairly Messi way to wear an eight-thousand-dollar watch: with a football kit, at a training ground, on a Tuesday.
Price checked 6 September 2026 and will move. Market prices for this reference change with demand. Fashion Place earns a commission on some links at no extra cost to you.
