Rolex Daytona Ref. 16520 'Zenith' - White 'Inverted 6' Dial

The Rolex Daytona model, since its initial release, has been at the forefront of the market as the most desirable chronograph in production. Prior to the introduction of the automatic-winding Daytonas in 1988, all previous Rolex chronographs had been manually-wound. Rolex decided to outsource their movement for the Ref. 16xxx series of watches, looking for the best movement available. and settled on the best that was available at the time: the famous They used this movement as the basis and then fortified it, performing approximately 200 modifications to the base movement to meet the expectations prestigious of the Wilsdorf group. This created the workhorse Rolex 4030 movement that was put in production for an era of 12 years. In this Reference, Rolex also incorporated the more resilient sapphire crystals, a contributing factor to the increased depth rating guaranteed at 100m or 330ft.

This example is a Reference 16520 dating to circa 1991. It comes to us with an absolutely fantastic case, showing signs of having been very lightly previously polished, with visible factory finishing and just light wear from age and use. The matching steel bezel shows normal wear from age with fully-intact black paint within the engraved markings. Being an early example, this piece comes fitted its correct fully-brushed stainless steel Oyster blade with a blade clasp. These bracelets were ultimately replaced with an updated design featuring polished center-links and a fliplock clasp, a design which continues to this day. Inside, the gloss white 'Inverted 6' dial is virtually flawless, with evenly patinated applied Tritium-filled indices, contrasting black sub-registers rings, and that modified El Primero automatic-winding movement

These neo-vintage pieces still present exceptional value in todays market and are becoming a modern classic in a big way, and early examples, with 'Inverted 6' Tritium dials and the early bracelet don't surface all that often.