The first Rolex Cosmograph Daytona was introduced in 1963, which leads into this 50th anniversary of this highly sought-after chronograph. Both new and pre-loved. Although Rolex did not came up with the limited or special anniversary edition that many people expected, they did introduce – for the first time – a platinum version of their Rolex Cosmograph Daytona and have it reference number 116506.
When i first saw (and tried) the watch during the Baselworld exhibition, I was impressed by the rather high weight (286 grams) due to the use of platinum, but the colours (ice blue dial and brown ceramic bezel) didn’t do it for me at this first encounter.
The Rolex Daytona has a long history and especially the stainless steel models always performed well amongst collectors and connoisseurs. From the hand-wound models from the 1960s to the 1980s via the self-winding Rolex Day Date replica
with Zenith movement (1988-2000) to the current line-up of stainless steel Daytonas (2000-).
Although there were some rumours – or perhaps just high hopes – for a Daytona model with a slightly bigger case than its 40mm size, Rolex instead came up with this exotic platinum version with a price tag of a whopping 61. 550. - Euro.
The use of brown – or marone – reminded me of the so-called Patrizzi Daytona which is a stainless steel Rolex Daytona 16520 from the mid-1990s that suffered from some discolouration which turned the black rings around the sub dial into brown / marone colored rings. Below is an image of that particular Patrizzi Rolex Daytona, captured from Rolex Watches.