BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
I feel like I need to say this, although I feel it will be ignored: If you were expecting Rolex to change absolutely everything as other brands might do, then the only person you are fooling is yourself. It’s not the Rolex way to change a million things on their watches every year just to say they’ve done a new thing, and it has never been.
So, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at some new versions of the brand’s classic chronograph collection, the Daytona. I can’t remember if it was last year or the year before we saw Rolex add a meteorite dial to their GMT-Master II model, but since then, we’ve known that they’ll most likely do something else with meteorite. I was expecting them to use it on the Cellini, but instead, they’ve used it to add pizazz to the Daytona.
Three variants of the Daytona are coming with the option of a meteorite dial now, and all of them have a precious metal case. The Daytona comes in all manner of materials, but it’s only the yellow gold, Everose gold and white gold models that get the treatment. I like that they’ve changed things around here, and I mostly understand why they only did it for their more expensive versions (to get you to pay a bit more, like if you wanted all the bells and whistles Mercedes Benz offers, you’d get an S-Class instead of an E-Class).
Apart from that, things haven’t changed here. The white gold Daytona has a black ceramic bezel, while the other models have a gold bezel. All three have markers and hands that match the dial. The case measures 40mm in diameter. Inside it is the calibre 4130, an in-house movement with an integrated column-wheel chronograph with a parachrom hairspring for increased accuracy and anti-magnetic properties, and is a Superlative Chronometer with superior accuracy ( +/-2s per day).
In white gold, the price is CHF32,500. In yellow gold, that price jumps to CHF39,100 and for Everose, that price increases again to CHF41,700. It appears that the white gold version is only offered on the Oysterflex strap for now, while the others get solid gold bracelets.
Visit Rolex here.
A special mention of the passing of Prince Philip, RIP.
