By Brent Robillard
A Visit to Stockholm
There’s something thrilling about standing in front of a glass case filled with watches that have lived lives, or told stories, longer than some of us have been alive. It’s even more thrilling to hold them in your hands, and try them on your wrist. On a recent visit to Kaplans Auktioner in Stockholm, ahead of their Important Watches sale this November 15th, I had the chance to photograph two pieces that together tell one of watchmaking’s most compelling stories: the rise of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona.
Online bidding has already begun, and among the hundreds of lots, these two stood out—a modern reference 116500LN, its compelling Cerachrom absorbing the showroom lights, and a yellow gold Ref. 16528 with the elusive floating dial. Both models, in their own ways, trace the long and winding road that took the Daytona from retail obscurity to global icon.
Advertisement
The Slow Start
When Rolex introduced the Cosmograph Daytona in 1963, the reception was lukewarm at best. Designed for professional racing drivers, the watch featured a tachymeter scale engraved on its bezel, perfect for measuring average speeds. But customers weren’t interested.
Advertisement
Dealers struggled to sell them, and for years, Daytonas sat forgotten in display cases—often discounted or bundled with other Rolexes just to move inventory. It’s almost comical in hindsight, given how the name Daytona would one day come to define luxury sports chronographs.
The irony was rich even then: this watch, named after Florida’s Daytona International Speedway, was anything but fast out of the gate.
Advertisement
Paul Newman and the Turning Point
Everything changed when Paul Newman entered the picture.
The actor, racing enthusiast, and all-around style icon was often photographed wearing a Daytona with a now-famous “exotic” dial—characterized by contrasting subdials, Art Deco numerals, and a distinctive minute track. Collectors later dubbed it the Paul Newman Daytona, and that nickname alone sent prices soaring.
Advertisement
What had once been a $200 afterthought became an object of obsession. By the 1980s, the once-dusty chronographs had become cult symbols of cool — the kind of watch that whispered rather than shouted.
And when Paul Newman’s own 6239 crossed the block at Phillips in 2017, selling for $17.8 million, the legend was sealed. A watch once left unsold in shop windows had become one of the most valuable timepieces ever made.
Advertisement
The Golden Bridge: Ref. 16528 “Floating Dial”
If the Newman-era Daytonas are the stuff of folklore, then the Ref. 16528 represents the Daytona’s coming of age. Introduced in 1988, it was the first automatic version of the model, powered by the Calibre 4030—a heavily reworked Zenith El Primero movement.
This yellow gold version, part of Kaplans’ upcoming auction, carries the tell-tale signs collectors look for: the “floating dial” (where the word Cosmograph sits apart from the text above) and the Mark 1 bezel, with deeper and wider engraving. Together, they define the earliest generation of automatic Daytonas—a bridge between the vintage charm of the 6239s and the glossy precision of the 21st-century models.
The presence of T Swiss Made T at six o’clock reminds us this was still a tritium era watch—luminous in both material and meaning, glowing at the threshold of Rolex’s modern transformation.
Advertisement
The Modern Apex: Ref. 116500LN
Fast forward to 2016, and Rolex unveiled the Daytona Ref. 116500LN, instantly rewriting the rulebook for modern sports chronographs.
For the first time, a stainless-steel Daytona featured a black Cerachrom bezel—a nod to its 1960s ancestors, but built for the present day. The result was stunning: timeless proportions, high-contrast dial options in black or white, and the technical excellence of Rolex’s in-house Calibre 4130.
The example photographed here at Kaplans, in crisp white, captures the Daytona at its peak—an object that has transcended its tool-watch origins to become a cultural and design icon. Its glossy ceramic bezel carries not just the tachymetric scale of racing, but the entire legacy of a watch that once gathered dust and now commands waitlists years long.
Advertisement
From the Podium in Stockholm
To see both of these references—the 16528 and 116500LN—side by side in Stockholm was to witness the Daytona’s evolution firsthand. One in glowing gold, the other in steel and ceramic; one bridging the vintage and modern worlds, the other defining contemporary desirability.
From the bargain bin to the podium—the Daytona’s journey mirrors that of the collectors who chase it: patient, persistent, and forever in pursuit of precision and beauty.
This November, as the gavel falls at Kaplans Auktioner, two more chapters in that story will find new homes. But the legend? That keeps ticking.
Advertisement
About the author
Brent Robillard is a writer, educator, craftsman, and watch enthusiast. He is the author of four novels. You can follow him on Instagram.
Other Watchy Bits include op-ed pieces and articles of general interest. We’d love to hear your opinion in the comments section below.
Please understand that using any links to products on this site may result in us making money.