I love all the watches in our collection but every now and again we come across a watch that is truly outstanding and this Daytona is just such a watch.
The Daytona can be traced back to the 1930’s when Rolex first introduced a mechanical chronograph but it was 1963 when they introduced the ‘6239’ and a few years later in 1964/65 that the iconic name of Daytona appeared on the dial – they also produced the first inverted colours on the dial to differentiate the the sub-dials and brought in the tachymeter scale on the bezel. Some of these so called exotic dials were introduced to a huge….. lack of interest. It’s thought that only 20 – 30 dials are the classic Paul Newman design and a lot of these were changed during servicing. Paul Newman’s own Daytona was sold for $17.8million in 2017.
In 1988 Rolex introduced the self-winding movement and used the Zenith El Premiro calibre 400 as the base and used this until 2000 when a Rolex in-house movement was created. ‘Zenith’ Daytonas are amongst the most collectable in the range. This solid 18ct yellow gold model not only has the Zenith based movement but also the original punched papers and it was sold by Schullin Rolex in Austria. Finding paperwork on any watch of this age is unusual but on a watch like this it’s extremely rare. The watch was also serviced by Rolex in 2019 and this is very important as Rolex won’t service any watch that isn’t entirely original. It also has the original crisp white ‘inverted 6′ dial’ – the bottom sub-dial has the numbers ’12 3 6 and 9′ and the ‘6’ is inverted. It’s not known if this was intentional or an error by Rolex but makes the watch even more desirable.
We bought this watch with a genuine and period correct solid 18ct gold Rolex Submariner bracelet. We’d be happy to sell it with the bracelet or on a super high grade Hirsch ‘London’ alligator strap at a discounted price. The bracelet’s in excellent condition with 12 links and a total weight with the watch (and movement/dial etc) is 171gms.
We also have a period correct Rolex box with aftermarket cushion (we’ll try and find a genuine cushion and also take a picture of the watch on a Hirsch strap in the coming weeks).
We give a lifetime guarantee on the authenticity and provenance and a 12 month guarantee on the movement. We cannot guarantee this watch is totally waterproof.
