Rolex Cosmograph Daytona: A Brief History of Time
All watches have stories, right? One of my favorites is the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Gerald Genta designed it on a borrowed sheet of paper during lunch in a restaurant in Basel, Switzerland while Baselworld was in full swing across the street.
And how about the 6358 “James Bond” Submariner? Or the Omega Speedmaster (some of the best ones about the Speedy are actually not true – NASA personnel secretly going to jewelry stores to buy the test samples, etc.). Or the Rolex GMT Master (design supported by Pan American World Airways; supposedly “the other moon watch” – a fact backed up by photos from NASA themselves).
The list goes on and on, and no doubt I’ve skipped your own personal favorite.
And then there’s the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the watch that (now) famously sat unsold on jewelers’ shelves for up to five years before a customer would finally take an interest.
The heritage of the Daytona goes back to 1937, when Rolex first began producing chronographs. Those were single-pusher chronos – a trait that’s quite desirable now, but limiting from a functionality standpoint. Thus, Rolex began making dual-push-piece chronos within a couple of years.
And before the end of WW II, the Oyster case was used to house at least some of the growing Rolex stable of chronographs. 1949 saw the Oyster case used in conjunction with a three-register movement.
In 1953, Rolex registered the name, Cosmograph. They labeled their moon phase chronos with it, only to abandon the name three years later. They brought the name back in 1964 with the ref. 6239 and this was the beginning of the Daytona line.
However, Cosmograph Daytonas weren’t always signed ‘Daytona.’ Indeed, one doesn’t need to search the web very hard to find photos of identical watches side by side, one with Daytona emblazoned in red, the other curiously blank.
Rolex continued to carry out its program of continuous improvement. Evolutionary changes appeared every few years. The Paul Newmans sprang to life in the 1970s, screw-down pushers, an apparently unpopular innovation (but necessary for improved water resistance), appeared. The bezel changed from a painted aluminum insert to a one-piece engraved unit. And so on.
A big change came in 2000 with the release of calibre 4230, Rolex’s first in-house chronograph movement. Nowadays, the bezel has morphed again, from solid metal to Cerachrom (Rolex’s proprietary ceramic material) on the platinum version.
All of that history for a watch that, 50 years ago, sat unwanted on jewelers’ shelves.
To learn more about the history of the Daytona, check the page at Bob’s Watches.
And how about the 6358 “James Bond” Submariner? Or the Omega Speedmaster (some of the best ones about the Speedy are actually not true – NASA personnel secretly going to jewelry stores to buy the test samples, etc.). Or the Rolex GMT Master (design supported by Pan American World Airways; supposedly “the other moon watch” – a fact backed up by photos from NASA themselves).
The list goes on and on, and no doubt I’ve skipped your own personal favorite.
And then there’s the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the watch that (now) famously sat unsold on jewelers’ shelves for up to five years before a customer would finally take an interest.
The heritage of the Daytona goes back to 1937, when Rolex first began producing chronographs. Those were single-pusher chronos – a trait that’s quite desirable now, but limiting from a functionality standpoint. Thus, Rolex began making dual-push-piece chronos within a couple of years.
And before the end of WW II, the Oyster case was used to house at least some of the growing Rolex stable of chronographs. 1949 saw the Oyster case used in conjunction with a three-register movement.
In 1953, Rolex registered the name, Cosmograph. They labeled their moon phase chronos with it, only to abandon the name three years later. They brought the name back in 1964 with the ref. 6239 and this was the beginning of the Daytona line.
However, Cosmograph Daytonas weren’t always signed ‘Daytona.’ Indeed, one doesn’t need to search the web very hard to find photos of identical watches side by side, one with Daytona emblazoned in red, the other curiously blank.
Rolex continued to carry out its program of continuous improvement. Evolutionary changes appeared every few years. The Paul Newmans sprang to life in the 1970s, screw-down pushers, an apparently unpopular innovation (but necessary for improved water resistance), appeared. The bezel changed from a painted aluminum insert to a one-piece engraved unit. And so on.
A big change came in 2000 with the release of calibre 4230, Rolex’s first in-house chronograph movement. Nowadays, the bezel has morphed again, from solid metal to Cerachrom (Rolex’s proprietary ceramic material) on the platinum version.
All of that history for a watch that, 50 years ago, sat unwanted on jewelers’ shelves.
To learn more about the history of the Daytona, check the page at Bob’s Watches.
