The Daytona is a racing chronograph, designed to time laps at speed. Its owners mainly use it to time how long they can talk about it before someone asks.
Rolex is clear about what it was for. The Cosmograph Daytona was, in Rolex's own words, designed for motor racing1. Put one on a leather strap and something curious happens. The watch built for pit lanes becomes a watch for restaurants. This column is about that decision, and about the fact that we have made it.
Built for the pit lane
The Cosmograph arrived in 1963 as ref. 6239. The word Daytona followed on the dial, at first on watches for the American market1,2. Two years later came screw-down pushers, which guard against knocks and keep water out, and the word Oyster joined Cosmograph on the dial1,2.
In 1968 Joanne Woodward gave Paul Newman a Cosmograph Daytona engraved DRIVE CAREFULLY ME, just before he started filming Winning, in which he plays a racing driver1,3. That anecdote later turned out to be worth a great deal of money. We will come back to the bill.
In 1988 the Daytona became automatic. Calibre 4030, Rolex's heavily modified version of Zenith's El Primero, went into ref. 16520, and the case grew from 37 to 40 mm1,4,5. In 2000 Rolex replaced it with calibre 4130, its own chronograph movement1,5. In 2023 came the 41311,4.
Gold, leather and the water problem
For a long stretch, Rolex delivered its gold Daytonas on leather. We count five plain-gold references, leaving gem-set versions aside: the yellow gold 16518 and white gold 16519 with the Zenith-based movement, then the 116518 and 116519 with calibre 4130, and from 2011 the Everose 116515LN, the first Daytona with a ceramic Cerachrom bezel4,5,6,7,8.
Here is the curious part. Rolex rated its leather-strap Daytonas of the 2010s, the 116518, 116519 and 116515LN, waterproof to 100 metres7,8,9. Its advice on leather straps, in the guide to its 1908 dress watch, is to protect them from water and humidity10. When Rolex tells you how to wash your watch, it says the case and bracelet are fine with soapy water and a soft brush, except leather straps11. Its guarantee does not cover the wear and tear of straps that are not metal11.
“The case is rated to 100 metres. The strap would prefer you stayed indoors.”
By 2017 the gold Daytonas had moved to the Oysterflex, a rubber bracelet1,12,13. Rolex doesn't say whether the water had anything to do with it. Today Rolex fits every Cosmograph Daytona with either an Oyster bracelet or an Oysterflex. There is no Daytona on leather in the catalogue14,15.
So the leather Daytona is now a second-hand decision, which makes it a slightly more dubious one. Nobody needs a steel watch that costs as much as a used Volvo. That's rather the point. A gold one on leather takes the point and makes it again, more quietly, in a nicer suit.
About that bill
Paul Newman's own Daytona, the 1968 ref. 6239 engraved DRIVE CAREFULLY ME, was sold by Phillips in New York on 26 October 2017 for USD 17,752,500 including the buyer's premium3,16. At the time it was a world record for a wristwatch at auction16,17.
This has done wonders for the confidence of every Daytona owner since. It should not. That watch was steel, it had belonged to Paul Newman, and his wife had had it engraved. Yours has none of these qualities. Neither does ours.
Making the same decision today
The nearest thing Rolex sells is the yellow gold 126518LN on an Oysterflex. On 14 October 2026 it cost USD 42,700 in the US, GBP 35,600 in the UK and EUR 41,100 in Germany18,19,20. In the US that is 14.2 per cent more than a year earlier, when it was USD 37,40018,21.
A second-hand 16518 on Chrono24 had a median asking price of about USD 29,017 in July 2024, USD 27,970 in August 2025 and USD 29,459 in February 202622,23,24. The two windows point in different directions, so we report no trend. Asking prices are not sale prices.
Should you buy one? Financially, probably not. Emotionally, you already have. We know. One of us did.