In the 1980s, Rolex began to adorn their sports watches with precious gemstones for its most exclusive clientele. Among these first early gem-set sports watches are the manually-wound Daytona references 6269 and 6270 (the former with brilliant-cut diamonds at the bezel and the latter with baguette-cut diamonds). Sparking a new trend for gem-set timepieces, Rolex continued to bedazzle their prestigious lines of watches with various combinations of gemstones, cuts, settings and designs over the years. Examples with large baguette-cut bezels, pavé diamond dials, emeralds, rubies or sapphires to name a few combinations have been produced, always in very small quantities and with extreme attention to quality and execution.

Adorned with 36 rainbow-hued sapphires on the bezel and 56 diamonds set on the lugs and crown guards, the dial features diamond-set indexes to complete the superlative and vibrant Daytona. With tremendous efforts to source the world’s highest quality of gems, each stone is cut specifically to be fitted on the bezel, with each gemstone examined thoroughly for its cut, clarity and most importantly, colour. Hence, with its tedious process resulting in an extremely low production of all Rolex gem-set pieces, with the Rainbow being one of the toughest to execute.

Today, the Daytona Rainbow family has been released in yellow gold, white gold and pink gold. Marking the 60th anniversary of the Daytona this year in 2023, rare and special Daytona models including the present example are highly demanded in the market. A true icon and the first of them do have gone under the rainbow treatment, the present ref. 116598RBOW from circa 2012 is complete with its original guarantee and presentation box. A perfect way to celebrate the important anniversary of one of the most beloved wristwatches of all time.