The first automatic Cosmograph Daytona ever produced, reference 16520 (together with gold model 16528 and steel-and-gold version 16523) was in production from 1988 until the introduction of Rolex’s in-house movement in 2000.
As it often happens with Rolex timepieces - especially at the beginning of the production run of a model - the reference presents an evolution dictated by the company’s effort to perfect the design in terms of legibility and aesthetics.

The present low-S-serial wristwatch made in circa 1993 is one of the very last representatives of the “non-final” version of the reference. Around 1994 the final version was adopted, and it would remain the same until the end of the production, but this specimen still presents the famous “inverted 6” dial. As the name suggests, it is defined by the digit “6” present at 6 o’clock of the subsidiary dial being printed upside down, thus resembling a 9. Later examples bear instead an upside-up 6, thus avoiding any kind of possible confusion.

Serviced by Rolex in February of this year (and consequently under service guarantee until February 2021), the present example boosts the attractiveness and collectability of the “inverted 6” iteration with the fact that it is one of the very last examples to be fitted with such a dial configuration.