The aesthetics and luxury of watches in Italian football

Roberto Mancini is the coach with the highest percentage of victories at the helm of the Azzurri. A result that makes him enter an Olympus of a select few. It is not just the football played that makes him an icon. His elegant and always impeccable style makes him the most fashionable among the coaches in circulation. Among the elements that make Mancio unique there are certainly his magnificent watches, one of the great passions of the CT along with yachts.

Combining Italian aesthetics with good taste for coaches has always been a great challenge and watches often come to the rescue of those who have a particular relationship with style. There are those who give up the suit for comfort, there are those who give up the tie to live the game more intensely, but few give up on watches: from Mazzarri - who became famous for his gesture by pointing to a watch - to Conte, from the legendary Trapattoni and Lippi to Fonseca.

Active coaches

Serie A has many great exponents of luxury watchmaking. In the last period, Andrea Pirlo has also been added to the list, who always arrives super prepared on the bench of his Juventus and on the Continassa fields, alternating a Patek Philippe Calendar Perpetuo, a Hublot Big Bang Black Magic Cronograph and the many Rolexes (definitely his favorites). The penchant for the Geneva-based company led him to create a Rolex Submariner that takes the name of “Andrea Pirlo Project”, with a personalized dial and innovative materials.

Pirlo, however, is in excellent company: to Antonio Conte's Hugo Boss uniform the Inter coach almost always combines a steel Rolex Daytona with a white dial; does the same Pippo Inzaghi, while Fonseca shares the model but not the color, preferring Everose gold and the pink dial. Impossible not to mention two veterans such as Claudio Ranieri and Stefano Pioli: the first often takes to the field wearing a vintage Rolex Explorer II on his wrist (while in the English period they went to Daytona with Bakelite bezel and panda dial), the second with a Rolex GMT- Master "Pepsi" definitely livelier than the others. The same goes for Marco Giampaolo who, after his AC Milan adventure, wears a grenade and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore (complete with a crocodile strap).

A special mention goes to Mr. Fabio Cannavaro, a true watch lover: on the bench of the Tianhe Stadium he sits with a rare vintage Daytona with a "Paul Newman" dial, with a limited edition (only 20 pieces made) of the Purnell Escape II, with a 40.5mm Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980 / 1A-001 or with Richard Mille RM055 “Bubba Watson”. Only these 4 pieces reach the figure of € 825,000.  

Andrea Pirlo, Rolex Submariner “Andrea Pirlo Project” made by Artisans de Genève | Market price: € 80.000

Andrea Pirlo, Andrea Pirlo, Rolex Submariner “Andrea Pirlo Project” made by Artisans de Genève | Market price: € 80.000

Andrea Pirlo, Patek Philippe Calendar Perpetuo | List price: € 67.990

Andrea Pirlo, Hublot Big Bang Black Magic Cronograph | List price: € 15.500

Andrea Pirlo, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona champagne | List price: € 25.650

Andrea Pirlo, Patek Philippe World Time | List price: € 46.700

Antonio Conte, Rolex Daytona | Market price: € 25.000

Paulo Fonseca, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Everose gold | List price: € 34.500

Stefano Pioli, Rolex GMT-Master ‘Pepsi’ | Market price: € 10.000

Marco Giampaolo, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore | Market price: € 18.000

Filippo Inzaghi, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona | Market price: € 27.000

Claudio Ranieri, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona panda | Market price: € 90.000

Claudio Ranieri, Rolex Explorer II vintage | Market price: € 25.000

Fabio Cannavaro, Richard Mille RM055 “Bubba Watson” black edition | Market price: € 90.500

Fabio Cannavaro, Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980/1A-001 40.5mm | Market price: > $ 90.000

Fabio Cannavaro, Rolex Cosmograph Daytona vintage ‘Paul Newman’ | Market price: € 200.000

Fabio Cannavaro, Purnell Escape II in black DLC titanium | List price: $ 435.000

Not active coaches

Among the luxury free agents, however, there are many names that in this peculiar aesthetic vision have little to envy to those who have a team to coach. Vincenzo Montella, former Milan and Fiorentina, is looking forward to starting a new adventure to wear the "Batman" version of his Rolex GMT-Master. Maurizio Sarri dreams of returning to the bench, perhaps to brush up on his jewels: the Patek Philippe Calatrava in white gold and the vintage pre-Daytona Rolex with which he showed up in Turin.

The Mazzarri myth of tapping his finger on his IWC Ingenieur is missing from everyone, while there is far less chance of seeing Gian Piero Ventura and his sober Daytona in steel and gold return to the bench. On the other hand, the one who has always divided the hearts of fans for his extreme tactical ideas is Zdeněk Zeman, who has been without a job for two years. His interviews are missing, his unique way of telling the truth and even a little bit of his Omega Speedmaster.

Maurizio Sarri, Rolex Chronograph pre-Daytona vintage | Market price: € 40.000

Maurizio Sarri, Patek Philippe Calatrava | List price: € 20.920

Vincenzo Montella, Rolex GMT-Master II ‘Batman’ | List price: € 8.600

Walter Mazzarri, IWC Ingenieur | Market price: € 6.250

Zdeněk Zeman, Omega Speedmaster| List price: € 4.400

Gian Piero Ventura, Rolex Daytona gold steel | List price: € 15.750

National team coaches

A step above the others are the coaches of the Italian national team, from legends such as Giovanni Trapattoni and Marcello Lippi to Roberto Mancini. While the first two stop at models such as the Hublot Big Bang Unico King Gold Carbon (for one of Berlin's heroes) and the Rolex Daytona (for the man with the most recognizable whistle in the world), on the other hand 'is all the aesthetics of Mancio, hands down one of the most stylistically prepared coaches in the world.

In his very personal collection there are two rare gems: the first is a Richard Mille RM022 Tourbillon Aerodyne Dual Time Zone, made of an alloy of titanium and carbon to support the movement, the same material used by NASA for some components of the wings of their space aircraft; the second is the Richard Mille RM 11-04 Chronograph Flyback "Roberto Mancini", the result of a collaboration with the Swiss production house. The blue strap is obviously dedicated to the bench on which he sits now, while the internal engraving "R. Mancini” is the symbol of a true friendship with Richard Mille and Dominique Guenat. The peculiarity of this $ 183,000 model (also seen at the figure of $ 400,000) is that it allows the CT to monitor the time of the race: a mini-stopwatch has been created inside the dial which indicates the classic 45 minutes, recovery and possibly extra time.

Roberto Mancini, Richard Mille RM 11-04 Flyback ‘Roberto Mancini’ | List price: $ 183.000 | Market price: $ 400.000

Roberto Mancini, Richard Mille RM022 Tourbillon Aerodyne Dual Time Zone | List price: $ 400.000

Marcello Lippi, Hublot Big Bang Unico King Gold Carbon | List price: € 43.600

Giovanni Trapattoni, Rolex Daytona vintage silver | Market price: € 100.000

Two cases in antithesis close this journey into the world of watches. Executives also claim their space in this industry, but each does it in their own way. Gianluca Petrachi, former Roma DS, showed up for the first time in Trigoria showing personality, initiative and his Rolex Daytona 6265 “Big Red” in steel with a silver dial for 60,000 euros. Daniele Pradè, on the other hand, managed to bring a champion like Franck Ribery to his Florence with a super low cost operation. Low cost is also the watch on his wrist at the time of the Frenchman's signature: a very classy 1992 Swatch Grand Prix SCJ101.

Daniele Pradè, Swatch Grand Prix 1992 SCJ101 | Market price: € 90

Gianluca Petrachi, Rolex Daytona 6265 ‘Big Red’ | Market price: € 60.000