Few copies, high demand
When Rolex launched the first chronograph with the Daytona logo in 1963 with the Ref. 6239, the watch was a slow seller. Many competing watches were already equipped with automatic calibres. However, this was not the case with the original Daytona. The new reference had to be wound by hand every day and drove potential buyers to the competition.
It was to take until 1988, not least because of the quartz crisis, before Rolex decided to give the Daytona an automatic calibre. The choice fell on the Zenith El Primero calibre, which had been produced since 1969. Rolex modified this original high-beat mechanism and reduced the frequency from 36,000 A/h to 28,000 A/h. The watch's movement was given the in-house reference 4030, and the Daytona Zenith was born. The new Ref. 16520 was a bombshell, and the Daytona Zenith was the first Rolex Daytona to become a worldwide hit.
Limited quantities: A myth is born
The popularity of the Daytona Zenith meant that Rolex needed many calibres for the new Zenith. However, the Le Locler watch manufacturer Zenith, which supplied Rolex with the movements, could not supply such a large number of calibres. For the first time in the history of the Rolex Daytona, this meant that demand was significantly greater than supply. As early as the 1990s, this shortage heated the Daytona's desirability.
The subsequent models, the successor Ref. 116520 launched in 2000 and the Ref. 116500 introduced in 2016, were also able to build on the tremendous success of the Daytona Zenith. And although Rolex has equipped the Daytona with in-house calibres since the introduction of the Ref. 116520, the model is so popular that waiting lists at concessionaires are full and almost every Daytona reference is now difficult to obtain. Only with CHRONEXT, you do not have to wait for years to obtain such a model.