The Rolex Daytona, one of the most classic watch series ever, became a collector’s piece and a must-have to all watch lovers. But we must ask if it’s worthwhile for the $85,700 platinum version? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.
Rolex was launched in 1908 making quality watches. In 1926 they released the first waterproof watch, the “Oyster”, which established the brand as a sports watch, thanks to the famous English Channel crossing by the British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze.
Sure, they also have a “social” design, the Cellini, since the 1970s, but frankly speaking, have you ever seen someone wearing a fake Cellini? If you have, congratulations! As far as I know, almost everyone wants a Rolex Oyster, a water-resistant watch.
Except for quartz movement models, Rolex Cellini, and Oyster (produced until 2001), replica Rolex is always famous for its automatic winding models. The Cosmograph Daytona was a child band of their 1950’s chronograph and we’ve talked about his before.
The watch became well known when Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Paul Newman” model got many different versions. What the most famous version were those with the so-called “Panda” dials – white dial with black subdials and vice-versa, resembling the “bear” eyes. (Rolex called them “exotic dials.”)
In some countries such as Brazil, however, the inexpensive fake Rolex Cosmograph Daytona did not perform well on market. Because every Rolex fan prefers the “perpetual” automatic movement, patented in 1931. But the Daytona had a manual winding mechanism, which made it stay unsold on sellers showcases. Nobody wants to use a fake Rolex that had to be wound manually.
Some collectors in Europe began to buy those “old stock” cheap Daytonas with distinct features around the world and their prices began to rise in auctions. Small differences in the dials made a watch gain thousands of dollars over its ordinary counterpart. Thus the collector fever started.
Later, in 1988, Rolex had a new design of fake Daytona. First, they change the older Valjoux mechanism with a Zenith El Primero self-winding movement, one of the best chronograph movements ever made. It was adjusted by Rolex to reduce maintenance costs. Also, instead of the smaller case diameter of the first models (37 mm), now the replica watch had a 40 mm case, screw-down chronograph pushers, and a sapphire crystal instead of a plastic window.