Rolex Daytona ref. 16518 'Zenith', White 'Inverted 6 Racing' Dial

Dealer description — Oliver & Clarke

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 piece that we have here, Reference 16518, stands out amongst its more popular sibling Reference 16528 with a somewhat unusual lug design. The 16518 features 'fillers' within the lugs to allow for a more seamless design when fitted to leather straps. Dating to circa 1997, this example comes to us in strong overall condition. The yellow gold Oyster case and matching yellow gold bezel shows normal wear from age with fully-intact black paint within the engraved markings and clear hallmarks on the underside of the lugs. Inside, the gloss white dial is exceptional. Rather than the more common baton-style indices, this example features applied 'Arabic' indices — which have taken on the colloquial name amongst the collecting community as a 'racing' dial. Combined with black subsidiary register rings, it absolutely has an attractive sporting look to it. Being from the mid-1990, it also has an 'Inverted 6' within the 6:00 subsidiary register ring, as well as applied Tritium-filled indices at the 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions, and a perfectly matching handset. The brown leather strap shows just normal wear with plenty of life left and is fitted to a yellow gold fliplock clasp. Additionally, this piece is accompanied by its outer box, lacquered wood inner box, booklets, and papers confirming the white dial and dated 7/1/1999. These neo-vintage pieces still present exceptional value in todays market and are becoming a modern classic in a big way. These factory leather-strap pieces in particular, offer fantastic value next to modern offerings.