The Ultimate Guide to the Rolex Daytona, the World’s Most Wanted Watch

Baker & Evans4 min readIn September, four Rolex Daytonas sold at a charity auction in London for a combined £37.3 million (about 49.5 million in USD). The most expensive, at £10.3 ($13.7) million, had a turquoise dial and a ring of pink sapphires. That same month, Rolex unveiled a steel-and-platinum Daytona with a white enamel dial and a speed scale that recalled the original from 1963.The regular steel Daytona with a white dial costs $16,900 from Rolex, if you can get one. In September, WatchCharts put its secondary-market value at about $35,000. It wasn't always like this. In its early years, according to Sotheby's, retailers discounted Daytonas to clear stock.The first DaytonaRolex launched the Cosmograph in 1963. An early advert called it the “Le Mans,” after the French endurance race. The name that stuck came from Daytona, Florida, where cars raced on hard-packed sand before the city had a speedway.PhilipsThe original Rolex Cosmograph ref. 6239, launched in 1963, featured a hand-wound movement and a tachymeter scale engraved on its steel bezel.The first model, reference 6239, had a movement you wound by hand and two buttons to operate the stopwatch. Rolex put the speed scale on the steel bezel, where a driver could read it at a glance. The three small counters stood out against the dial, black on a light face or light on a black one.By the 1970s, two models had emerged that collectors still prize today. The 6263 had a black acrylic bezel and the 6265 had a metal one. Both had screw-down collars around the stopwatch buttons. On some, the word Daytona curves in red above the bottom counter. Collectors call these “Big Reds.”PhilipsThe Rolex Daytona ref. 6263, with its black acrylic bezel, screw-down chronograph pushers and distinctive red Daytona lettering.The Paul NewmanJoanne Woodward gave Newman a 6239 around the time he made Winning, the 1969 film that sparked his interest in racing. She had “DRIVE CAREFULLY ME” engraved on the back. “There’s something almost magical about it,” James Cox, who later owned the watch, told Phillips. In 2017 it sold for $17.75 million, then an auction record for a wristwatch.PhilipsPaul Newman’s own Rolex Daytona ref. 6239, a gift from his wife Joanne Woodward, sold for $17.75 million in 2017.A “Paul Newman” usually refers to a type of dial. Look for the unusual numerals and small square-ended markers in the counters. The dials were unpopular when new. By 2013, Christie’s could sell 50 Daytonas in a single Geneva auction for $13.2 million. The top lot was a steel watch with a Paul Newman dial. It fetched $1.09 million, four years before the actor’s own watch went to auction.On one particularly rare black-dial 6263, the word “Oyster” appears below “Rolex Cosmograph.” Collectors call it the Oyster Sotto, from the Italian for “under”. Phillips sold one in 2025 for CHF 1.39 million (approximately $1.67 million). “One mistake people make is that they expect everything to fit neatly into a specific set of rules,” Geoff Hess, global head of watches at Sotheby’s, once explained. A dial can be genuine Rolex and still have come from a different watch.The Zenith DaytonaIn 1988 the steel Daytona became the 16520. It grew to 40mm, gained raised gold hour markers and a glossier dial, and wound itself as you wore it. Rolex extensively reworked Zenith’s El Primero movement for the watch. It was the first automatic Daytona, and the model that established the basic dimensions of the watch Rolex still makes today..Sotheby'sIntroduced in 1988, the Rolex Daytona ref. 16520 was the first automatic Daytona, powered by a heavily modified Zenith El Primero movement.On some early examples, a gap makes the word “Cosmograph” appear to float beneath the rest of the lettering. On certain black dials, the rings around the counters have turned brown with age. Those are known as Patrizzi dials, after the auctioneer Osvaldo Patrizzi, who noticed the change.The modern DaytonaThree steel references are worth knowing. The 116520, introduced in 2000, has a steel bezel and the first chronograph movement Rolex developed and made itself. The 116500LN, from 2016, brought back the look of the black acrylic bezel in ceramic. The current 126500LN, introduced in 2023, has a slim steel rim around that ceramic bezel, a revised dial, and a new movement that runs for about three days when fully wound. The two ceramic models can look remarkably similar in listing photographs.Rolex.The Rolex Daytona ref. 116500LN, introduced in 2016, brought the black bezel back in scratch-resistant ceramic.The rarest DaytonasThe unicorn is a hand-wound 6265 that Phillips described in 2018 as the only known vintage Daytona in white gold. It sold for CHF 5.94 million (about $7.1 million). The Rainbow gets its name from the graduated sapphires around its bezel. A white-gold example made around 1994, nearly two decades before the production versions appeared, sold in 2024 for CHF 5.505 million (approx $6.1 million).Rolex.The Rolex Daytona Rainbow, with a bezel set with graduated coloured sapphires, is among the most extravagant versions of the chronographSixty years after that early advert, Rolex returned to Le Mans. Its 2023 watch for the race’s centenary has a stopwatch that counts the full 24 hours. The regular Daytona counts to 12.Buying a DaytonaAn official Rolex retailer is the place to start if you want a new one at list price. Retailers manage their own allocations, so availability varies. Rolex addressed the shortage in 2021. “The scarcity of our products is not a strategy on our part,” it said, explaining that it could not meet demand without compromising quality.On the secondary market, compare the same reference and dial. WatchCharts’ September estimate for the current black-dial steel model was about $29,000, roughly $6,000 less than the white. If you’re buying vintage, ask a specialist dealer or auction house for a condition report. Find out whether the case has been heavily polished, which parts have been replaced, and whether the dial is correct for that particular watch. On a Daytona, those details can explain more about the price than the reference number.