Rolex Daytona Ref. 16528 'Zenith' - Black 'Inverted 6' Diamond 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.

The example that we have here is a Reference 16528 dating to circa 1991. It comes to us with a 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 yellow gold bezel shows normal wear from age with fully-intact black paint within the engraved markings. Being an early example, this piece comes fitted with its correct yellow gold Oyster bracelet with a 'blade'-style clasp — a design that was replaced with a fliplock design soon after these early examples. Inside, the glossy black 'Inverted 6' dial is virtually flawless, with factory applied diamond indices, a Tritium handset, 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. These diamond-dial piece in particular, offer fantastic value next to their close siblings.