How NASCAR Really Inspired Rolex’s Greatest Chronograph Collection

The Rolex Daytona is related to a watch NASCAR For racing drivers and kit heads. Rolex used to promote itself with the slogan “Worn by males who information the destinies of the world.” With a variety of luxurious watches, the Swiss watch model makes the whole lot from costume watches to device watches.


The model’s most well-known instruments are the Submariner and Daytona, the latter designed for drivers. With a 37mm or 40mm dial, the flexibility to set intervals and measure common speeds, this dainty Daytona watch is likely one of the most wanted on the planet.

A twist on in the present day’s elegant historical past however with out all of the Skydweller’s overkill or the Submariner’s extreme quantity. The Daytona simply slips completely beneath a shirt cuff, straddling between a costume watch and a sports activities watch. The $200,000 Rolex Daytona epitomizes exclusivity the place luxurious watches, racing, trend, and historical past meet.

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Luxurious watches just like the Rolex Daytona are the go-to for racing

Rolex Daytona photo 1
Rolex newsroom

All races are an efficient measure of who can journey the quickest distance. For racing, watch manufacturers make chronograph watches. Merely put, which means that the watch has a stopwatch characteristic. In watchmaking phrases, it is a complication, a characteristic that turns a watch right into a device.

In Method 1, luxurious watchmakers sponsor virtually each time. Nearly each Grand Prix weekend The Rolex title is plastered alongside the pit wall, and the race begins when certainly one of their watches counts down. Timekeeping and Rolex are certain collectively by racing.

Though a luxurious merchandise for racers, the Daytona continues to be a device. the Daytona is the go-to race. Rolex offers this watch the title Cosmograph. In Rolex terminology, that is its title for the chronograph. The Rolex Daytona chronograph is related to racing.

How was the Rolex Daytona named after the Daytona Speedway?

Rolex Daytona at Daytona International Speedway
Rolex Newsroom and Stefan Cooper

The primary extremely profitable Rolex watch bore the Oyster Perpetual, so-called for its water resistant capabilities. This watch survives to this present day and is an entry-level Rolex. The Rolex Daytona started life as a variant of this. Rolex makes use of reference numbers to determine the variations in its watches. Reference quantity 6234 was launched to the market because the Oyster Perpetual Chronograph in 1955.

It options three small dials on the face of the watch, that are the seconds, minutes, and the ticking hours. In response to RolexThe chronograph counters stand out clearly on the dial due to their intensely contrasting color, black on a light-coloured dial or light-colour on a black dial.

Reference quantity 6239 named the Cosmograph in 1963, however initially as Le Mans, the top of European marquee racing. formation The third a part of the Triple Crown Le Mans, Monaco and Indy 500. Breitling, in fact, partnered with Bentley For the return of Le Mans in 2001. Rolex is, in fact, Swiss.

However, the Daytona was an rising a part of the automotive calendar and offered a superb alternative for Rolex to increase into america. Rolex turned the Official Timekeeping Accomplice of Daytona in 1965 24 hours of daytona. The Daytona title has discovered its means onto the dial, simply above the hour marker, to have a good time this.

Rolex Daytona at Daytona International Speedway
Rolex Newsroom and Stefan Cooper

Rolex developed the Daytona design. These included screw presses for the chronograph perform, making the watch fully water-proof. All through the lifetime of the Daytona, the watch has maintained a powerful 37mm diameter dial earlier than upgrading to 40mm in 1988. The watch incorporates a tachymeter bezel, which permits the wearer to take a studying of the typical velocity.

These constructed between 1965 and 1969 are a few of the most fascinating examples, with these Older watches help 24-hour racing. Many collectors are significantly keen on reference quantity 6240, which is a black and white Daytona with screw-down buttons.

It was round this era that Paul Newman, star of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Child and The Sting, started carrying a Rolex Daytona as he started his profession as a racing driver. The Daytona 6239 incorporates a contrasting black and white dial with a metal bezel. In contrast to many Daytonas, Newman sat on a leather-based strap. In response to ForbesWhen this got here to public sale in 2017, the star’s watch offered for $17.8 million to a “thriller cellphone bidder.”

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How did the Rolex Daytona Panda get its $200,000 used worth?

Rolex Daytona on an Oyster flex bracelet
Rolex newsroom

used watches Not as properly revered as used automotive sellers. In spite of everything, most automotive dealerships promote each new and used vehicles. This isn’t the case for the watch world, with its approved sellers and grey market. Though late final yr Rolex threw a wrench into the works with its licensed pre-owned watches. Within the grey market, the Daytona carries an ironic characterization.

At Chrono 24, a watch market, the Daytona begins at $16,475, with particular editions just like the Daytona Platinum asking for almost $100,000. Nonetheless, uncommon classic examples price much more, approaching $200,000.

Reference quantity 16520 refreshed the Daytona, bringing its design line with fashions just like the Explorer II. This Rolex watch used a motion from Zenith, one other Swiss watchmaker. There was a restricted supply of the brand new 1991 Daytona attributable to provide restrictions. This created a market like souq Porsche 911 GT3 RSDue to shortage got here nice demand. The Daytona Chief 16528 was born, and a blue-dial gold watch adopted with simply 10 examples.

Daytona now has a uncommon custom, with solely two main releases since 1990. The Daytona Platinum used a brown and sky blue dial to have a good time Daytona’s fiftieth birthday. Daytona is likely one of the most fun hours of the 2000s, and because of this, for a lot of, the Trophy is an inconceivable dream. Ref 116500, the notorious “panda” watch. Identical to the restricted version 911sTo get certainly one of these, a person has to overpay for affordable merchandise to get the watch he actually needs.

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