Now that Baselworld is three weeks behind us, we can take a minute to answer the questions you all have about this – the most talked about watch of 2016, and the one that you’ve been told already has a very, very long waiting list – you know, the brand new Rolex Daytona. We announced the watch’s release on Wednesday, March 16th, and three weeks and 80+ comments later, it is still pulling in a ton of traffic. This watch is hot, and in this post we will cover the specs, the details, and give you our own thoughts on it after spending a brief moment with it in the Rolex booth. What’s more, we’ll give you an idea of when the first batch will hit stores, how many an authorized dealer might hope to get it in calendar year 2016, and how many people are currently on the wait list.
Here are the very basics that you need to know. The new reference of the stainless-steel Daytona is 116500LN, and it replaces 116520, which we reviewed in detail here. The 116520 was launched in the year 2000, and featured Rolex’s first in-house chronograph reference – caliber 4130. The 116520 itself replaced reference 16520, which was Rolex’s first self-winding Daytona – its caliber 4030 was based on a modified Zenith El Primero movement, though as we have told you, it was modified so extensively, many of Zenith’s most famous traits were no longer visible – such as the date and 36,000 vph beat rate. The self-winding Daytona was launched in 1988 and replaced the Valjoux-powered 6263/6265.
At Baselworld 2000, we saw the reference 116520 and in-house caliber 4130 – this is the Daytona that the 2016 Daytona replaces, though as we’ll see today, 116500LN is much more of an evolution than a revolution in both design and technology. The watch remained 40 mm, made in Rolex’s proprietary 904L steel, and the 116520 proved to be a robust and always cool best friend to countless men and women around the world.
In the year 2013, 50 years after the introduction of the very first Cosmograph (detailed here), the entire world expected to see the steel Daytona get a vintage makeover. We all wanted it, but Rolex wasn’t quite ready to give it to us yet – and instead gave us the platinum Daytona with brown ceramic bezel. I’ll be honest, I was pretty ornery that day at Basel (ask Stephen P. if you run into him, he’ll tell you). I remember speaking to Jack about at a dinner that Basel – he was a frenemy then, as EiC of Revolution, and he put it clearly: Is a $75,000 watch with brown bezel and blue dial the Daytona we all wanted then, or worse, was it what we all deserved in celebrating 50 years of Cosmograph? I can say that 2013 was the year that many of us reached peak Rolex annoyance – as if the kid down the street, the one you told people was your best friend, and who happened to be the smartest, coolest, and most popular kid in the 8th grade, had forgotten to invite you to his birthday party. You’re angry, dejected, but on Monday, when you see him in the cafeteria and he invites you to sit at the cool kids’ table, you quickly forgive and forget, because it’s him.
