A lot has happened since Rolex last updated the Daytona in 2016. Paul Newman’s vintage Daytona sold for $17 million; the modern steel Daytona turned into one of the hottest and hardest-to-get top Rolex replica watches on the planet; the Rainbow Daytona in Everose gold became a thing.
Now, on the 60th anniversary of the Daytona, Rolex is overhauling its entire chronograph lineup.
There’s a new movement, the Rolex caliber 4131. And there are now a whopping 32 versions of the UK cheap fake Rolex Daytona watches on Rolex’s website. Some are new; others look more familiar.
As with other recent Rolex line revamps – 2020’s Submariner update comes to mind – this is Rolex tweaking and refining its chronograph to make it just a little bit better, both aesthetically and technically.
So yeah, we could leave it at a shoulder shrug and a “great, a few updates to the Daytona, it’s still made of unobtainium though, right?” But every infinitesimal adjustment of the Daytona is going to catch our eye, especially when a few of them are explicitly inspired by vintage high quality replica Rolex watches. So let’s look at some of the biggest changes.
While the outgoing caliber 4130 had been quietly updated over the years, it was still a 23-year-old movement in need of Rolex’s latest technology. Among other technical upgrades, Rolex has reduced the number of components in the new caliber 4131, added its more efficient Chronergy escapement, and added more ball bearings to the rotor. The Swiss made Rolex Daytona copy watches still has a 72-hour power reserve.
Rolex has even added machine-applied Côtes de Genève Rolex finishing to the bridges. The even bigger story is that you can see these on the platinum Daytona through a sapphire caseback, a first for perfect replica Rolex sport watches. It’s a weird, perplexing sensation to flip over the new Daytona and see the movement inside – and depending on what you expect, you might even be a bit disappointed to see such industrial finishing in an $80,000 platinum watch. But then again, the fact that a platinum Daytona exists at all is kind of strange anyway.
While that platinum Daytona is the top-of-the-line standout, the new stainless steel Daytona, ref. 126500LN, is what everyone will want to know about.
Like the old best Rolex Daytona fake watches, it’s 40mm and comes with a black or white dial and still measures 40mm. The first thing I noticed when I picked up the new Daytona was the more refined dial. The subdial rings are thinner, which has the effect of making the subdials themselves look larger, like an old “big eye” chronograph.
The hour markers are also smaller, which makes the dial look more like the old Zenith Daytonas. Together, these changes make the dial feel slightly cleaner and balanced. Otherwise, the colors on the dial – white and black and that red “Daytona” text – seem the same as the old ceramic Daytona.
No, I might not be able to spot the differences from a few feet away. But on the wrist, it’s noticeably different Swiss movements Rolex super clone watches.
The ceramic bezel is the other big change to the look. There’s now a surrounding ring in the same metal as the case; the ceramic doesn’t stretch to the edge of the bezel itself. It’s a practical measure – ceramic’s great and durable, unless you happen to knock a bezel edge pretty hard and shatter the whole thing.
The new bezel also brings the AAA Rolex Daytona replica watches more in line with a vintage 6263 (Rolex even says that the black bezel “is reminiscent of the 1965 model that was fitted with a black Plexiglas bezel insert”), and I just think it looks better.
Collectors sometimes complain about Rolex not recognizing its own history, but here it is in ones and zeros for all to see on Rolex.com – the Crown explicitly referencing its past in a modern watch. And it works.
Rolex also says the bezel is made in a single piece; this isn’t a bezel insert. Like the changes to the dial, the updated bezel makes for a cleaner, more refined look.
While it’s still 40mm, case thickness is down to 11.9mm, about 0.5mm thinner than the old Rolex Daytona fake watches wholesale. This is perhaps the biggest difference in the everyday experience of just wearing a Daytona – which, in the end, is what matters most. It makes the Daytona much thinner than many (most?) of its mass-market chronograph comps. The case lugs are also more symmetrical than the previous 116500.
While the stainless steel and platinum are grabbing the most attention this week, there are also a couple dozen gold and two-tone models. (Meanwhile, out are the meteorite dials and the green-dial “John Mayer” Daytona.) The standouts for me are the white gold versions that feature silver and black panda and reverse-panda dials, or about as close to pandas as we’re gonna get from Rolex in a white metal on a bracelet. This white gold pair feels like it could be a sleeper hit in the new collection. While the steel is, of course, only offered on bracelet, many of the precious metal references are also offered on Oysterflex.
These are the biggest updates to the Daytona. Rolex says it’ll start delivery of the precious metals in September, with the steel to follow in October.
Once you get past what’s new, the new Daytona is pretty similar to the old ceramic Daytona. It’s still a chronograph that, in steel, now retails for $15,100. And it’ll still be impossible to get at retail. There’s the watch, and then there’s the owning of the 2023 China Rolex replica watches; discussion of the latter has totally consumed the former over the past few years, and that’s not going to change now just because the subdials look a little bit bigger.
Still, on the 60th anniversary of the Daytona, Rolex has made a Daytona that’s slightly better than the old Daytona, the same thing it’s done for each previous generation. It’s like that software update your iPhone does while you’re asleep at night. As soon as we get past what’s new, we find it’s mostly about what’s old.
