78
Rolex
Ref. 116509
Cosmograph Daytona
A superb, enormously captivating and very scarce white gold automatic chronograph wristwatch with mother-of-pearl dial, Arabic 5-minutes divisions, bracelet, warranty and box
Full-Cataloguing
- Automatic, running seconds at 6 o’clock, chronograph
- Extremely uncommon variation with mother-of-pearl dial
- Very well preserved case, flawless dial
- Offered with its full set of accessories
In production for two decades—from 2004 to circa 2023—ref. 116509 was the first white gold Daytona to be fitted with a bracelet, a luxury upgrade of the leather-strapped ref. 116519, originally launched in 1998.
The model is most often seen with a “racing” dial: either a black or white background with red details and red subsidiary hands, topped by radial Arabic numerals. As the present watch sublimely exemplifies, however, there were other options.
Since the 1990s, Rolex had experimented with stone and unusual dials, arguably reaching its peak with the “Daytona Beach” collection launched in 2000 on ref. 116519, featuring four different coloured stone dials. Possibly too playful for the times, the collection was very quickly discontinued. However, Rolex did not abandon stone dials entirely: the present watch (dating to 2005, a few years later) indeed features the same pink mother-of-pearl dial first seen on one of the “Daytona Beach” models, making the present watch one of the rarest and most attractive variations of the reference.
Rolex
Swiss | 1905Founded in 1905 England by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis as Wilsdorf & Davis, it soon became known as the Rolex Watch Company in 1915, moving its headquarters to Geneva in 1919. Like no other company, the success of the wristwatch can be attributed to many of Rolex's innovations that made them one of the most respected and well-known of all luxury brands. These innovations include their famous "Oyster" case — the world's first water resistant and dustproof watch case, invented in 1926 — and their "Perpetual" — the first reliable self-winding movement for wristwatches launched in 1933. They would form the foundation for Rolex's Datejust and Day-Date, respectively introduced in 1945 and 1956, but also importantly for their sports watches, such as the Explorer, Submariner and GMT-Master launched in the mid-1950s.
One of its most famous models is the Cosmograph Daytona. Launched in 1963, these chronographs are without any doubt amongst the most iconic and coveted of all collectible wristwatches. Other key collectible models include their most complicated vintage watches, including references 8171 and 6062 with triple calendar and moon phase, "Jean Claude Killy" triple date chronograph models and the Submariner, including early "big-crown" models and military-issued variants.