Roger Federer’s watch collection has now surpassed his trophy cabinet

It’s almost exactly three years ago to the day since Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were sitting holding hands in the middle of a packed out O2 Arena – in absolute floods of tears. The occasion was the Laver Cup, but the actual occasion was Roger Federer’s last ever tennis match before he retired.

Standing in the audience that evening, I remember thinking, “Jeeez, these two have racked up some serious memories together.” So many insane moments, that 2008 Wimbledon final without doubt the gnarliest. But throughout the rivalry and more broadly, Federer’s whole career, the only constants I can think of are his wife Mirka – they met in 2000 and have been together ever since – and his watch game.

Roger Federer has been part of the Rolex family for 25 years, which means literally every trophy lift, every post-match wave to the crowd, every press conference, there has been a significant Rolex flex to saviour since 2001 (when Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again was No.1 in the UK charts). Given he won 103 titles, that’s a lot of watch spots.

The bad news is I am not about to run through them all; the good news is retired Roger Federer is arguably more prolific in his watch-wearing exploits, as he’s shown in the past 48 hours.

So far at this year’s Laver Cup, he’s worn three watches, all different models; one has never been seen in the wild before, one is the most sought-after release in 2026 and the other as a go-to classic I’d estimate has been in Federer’s collection for about 15 years.

As far as I know, watch spotting isn’t something you can bet on; but if it was, you’d get good odds on Roger Federer being the first person to rock Rolex’s surprise new Padellone – it’s as close to a horological certainty as any. That he was spotted wearing the Crown’s new 39mm jewel while chatting to actual royalty is by the by (Zara Philips and Mike Tindall in case you’re wondering).

Get past the unexpected element of the Padellone’s arrival and you’re left with a new gold standard for a dress watch in 2026; moon phase (tick), perpetual calendar (tick), named after an Italian frying pan (tick). Between Federer’s backhand and this on a brown strap, I don’t know which is more graceful.

For the big Rod Laver (Aussie tennis legend) photo opp ahead of the tournament, the Swiss GOAT wore my favourite Rolex release from Watches and Wonders. What can I say, I love an ombre dial – especially if it’s a green Datejust 41 on steel and white gold. And to walk the black carpet, his black-tie pick was a black-dialled white gold Daytona on a black leather strap that you could almost call vintage now.

With a few more days still to go, and based on his form over the past few years, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw at least one more Rollie from him. It really isn’t a stretch to say that he has one of the most complete Rolex collections ever.