History of the Vintage Rolex Daytona

If we were to create a list of the ten most important and desirable watches of the late 20th Century, there’s a good chance that the top place would be taken by the Rolex Daytona. For the watch collectors amongst us, it would undoubtedly be a vintage Rolex Daytona to boot.

First introduced in 1963, the Rolex 6239 was initially known simply as the ‘Cosmograph’ although in all other respects, it was the Daytona that we all know and love.

The Rolex Daytona 1965 – 1988

Featuring an external tachymetre bezel and contrasting sub dials that were easy to read, the Rolex 6239 was the ideal watch for professional racing drivers and their teams.

The Daytona initially used a Valjoux 72 manual-winding movement, followed by other manual winding movements up until 1988. The manual winding nature is an important fact that we’ll return to 23 years further into the story.

It wasn’t until 1965 that the 6239 was re-christened the ‘Daytona’ after the Daytona International Speedway in Florida

The manual winding Rolex Daytona was produced in various guises until 1988 with both steel bezels.

• Ref 6239, 6241,6262 and 6265
• Black bakelite bezels – Ref 6240, 6264 and 6263

They were also available in 18ct gold with references 6263, 6265, 6269 and 6270.

Important Variants

 

The first Rolex Daytonas had the ‘Daytona’ script printed below the ‘Cosmograph’ and there were two main fonts – the same size as the Cosmograph text and more rarely, in a smaller font (The ‘Small Daytona’).

The ‘Daytona’ script was moved in 1967 to a position above the six o’clock sub dial where it remains today. The most famous ‘Daytona’ script on a standard dial is found on the 6265 ‘Big Red’ Daytona released in 1972.

Of course the most famous dial variant of all, not just for Daytonas, is the Paul Newman Daytona.

The Paul Newman or ‘Exotic’ Daytona dial was produced on perhaps one in 20 Daytonas covering the references 6239, 6241, 6262, 6263, 6264 and 6265 and featured Art Deco-style numerals and sub-dials in contrasting colours.

Originally unpopular and so not selling well, a lot of these exotic dials were inherently unstable and so many were replaced with standard dials during repairs or routine service. As a result, they have become even rarer over the years.

Paul Newman Daytonas have always sold for far higher prices than standard dialled versions but when Newman’s own 6239 sold for a record $17.8 million in 2017, prices went crazy.

To put this into some perspective, a nice standard dialled 6239 Daytona can be bought for around £60,000 in the UK whereas a genuine Paul Newman would be FOUR times that (work it out……)

The Rolex Zenith Daytona

As far back as 1969, Heuer had released their iconic Monaco chronograph, featuring an automatic movement. It is said that it was by way of a dig at Rolex that the original Monaco famously had the crown situated inaccessibly on the left hand side of the case. While the Daytona had a manual movement that needed to be wound regularly, the Monaco didn’t so access to the crown wasn’t necessary.

However it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that the powers that be at Rolex finally got fed up with their lack of an in-house automatic chronograph movement and approached Zenith to at least partially solve the issue.

By using a modified version of the famous Zenith El Primero movement, Rolex were finally able to produce an automatic Daytona, designed to bridge the gap while they developed their own in-house movement. Remarkably this development took over 12 years so the 16520 Daytona was produced from late 1988 to early 2000.

It was also produced for the first time in Bi-metal under Ref 16523 and white gold with Ref 16519. The yellow gold version was produced under Ref 16518.

In short supply compared to the later references, although not as rare as the earlier ones, the Rolex Zenith Daytona commands a higher price on the vintage market than its successors. This is particularly the case with the very early ‘Inverted six’ dials featuring an upside down number six on the bottom sub dial.

The first In-House automatic Movement

In 2000, Rolex finally introduced the Daytona reference 116520, featuring the in-house Caliber 4130 movement—a groundbreaking development in Rolex history.

The styling of all four Daytona references was pretty much unchanged from the successful formula used for the Zenith powered models and as a result, it’s difficult to distinguish between them without close inspection.

Produced for 15 years before being replaced in 2015 by the new ceramic version, the 116520, 116523, 116518 and 116519 references marked the last models of vintage Rolex Daytona.

Why is the Vintage Rolex Daytona So Valuable?

This is an interesting question and the answer comes down to my favourite principle of luxury watch values – supply and demand.

Put simply, there are relatively few great examples of any vintage Rolex Daytonas on the market and demand for them has always been very high. Even more so since Rolex began significantly limiting availability with the introduction of the 116500LN in 2015.

The scarcity of the new model affects desirability for previous models.

At the time of writing this article, we are fortunate to have 5 vintage Rolex Daytonas in stock, including a Ref. 6239.

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