Rolex has always been a great supporter of motor sports. In fact, when it was launched in 1963, the original Oyster Cosmograph was briefly known as the “Le Mans”, before the company’s triumphant arrival on the American market, which immediately recorded an exponential growth in sales of this model, leading to the adoption of the name “Daytona”, in honour of the 24 Hours of Daytona, of which it became the official sponsor.
The ’24 Hours of Daytona’ is one of the world’s most challenging automobile races. Each year, teams of world-class drivers travel to Daytona Beach, Florida, to participate in the 24-hour endurance race. This legendary test of skill, endurance and reliability was inaugurated in the 1960s, when the legendary race had existed on the city’s beaches since 1903. But it was only in 1991 that Rolex became the official sponsor of the race. The manufacturer decided to offer the members of the winning team a Daytona wristwatch engraved with their name and the date of victory.
Reference 16520 is also a very innovative model, as it houses the emblematic Zenith calibre 4030 mechanism, modified almost 50 per cent by Rolex.
This watch represents two very important symbols in the history of the famous Geneva-based brand: motorsport and the Daytona brand that took the place of its previous name: the Cosmograph.
The 1995 steel Daytona ‘Winner’, which was auctioned in Monaco on 14 July 2022, is one of four watches officially awarded to the winners of the 1995 competition with the German Kremer team in a Kremer K8 Spyder-Porsche. (lot 288). This fantastic timepiece, after a fierce battle between top international collectors, achieved a world record with 254,000 euros, and the second best result all time in the Watch Department.
