For 100 years, cars have written the story of speed and good times on solid Daytona Beach, a coastal city in Florida. The great chapter began more than a century ago, when automakers tested and drove their "horseless vehicles" on the firm sands of Daytona Beach and its neighboring Ormond Beach.
From 1903 to 1935, Daytona's hard sand became internationally famous as the ideal place to break speed records, with more than 80 official records being set here, 14 of them the fastest in the world.
In 1936, the first motor race was held on Daytona Beach road. Since 1958, when NASCAR created the permanently hardened Daytona International Speedway, cars have moved to The Daytona International Speedway, where the Daytona 500 is held every March. Other international races are held on this famous track, including the Pepsi 400 in July and the Rolex 24 At Daytona® in February. |
Daytona has since become the racing capital of the world. Since the 1930s, Thanks to oyster cases and Sir Malcom Campbell's famous experiments, Rolex has built a reputation as a maker of all-purpose sports watches. That was when Rolex produced the first single-button timepiece with a Valjoux movement inside. In 1955, Rolex incorporated a hand-chain chronograph movement into the Oyster case, the predecessor of Daytona, the Rolex Oyster chronograph Ref.6234. The dial was equipped with a tachometer outer ring scale and a rangemeter inner ring scale. From 1955 to 1961, Rolex produced about 2,300 stainless steel models, and about 150 14K or 18K gold models (available in black or white), with three-eye layout dials (walking seconds at 9 o 'clock, 30-minute dials at 3 o 'clock, and 12-hour dials at 6 o 'clock) in a variety of sizes. |
But the true ancestor of The Daytona is Ref.6238, especially the second generation, known to collectors as Pre-Daytona. In fact, in the first generation, the ref.6238 was not very different from the Ref.6234, but the second generation 6238 changed its style greatly, introducing more modern bar Pointers, polyhedral time scales and monochrome dials (silver, black, etc.). The rangefinder scale is removed from the dial and the speedometer scale remains. Polished bezel, diameter 37 mm. The inner Valjoux 72 timing movement was specially modified by Rolex and renamed 72 B in 1965-1967, followed by Cal.722.
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In 1963 Rolex Daytona introduced the first generation of the Cosmograph, model Ref.6239(this was not a replacement for the 6238, which was produced until 1967). A notable feature of the 6239 is that the speedometer scale is now engraved on the metal bezel to improve the legibility of the dial, and is available as a black-faced silver dial and a silver-faced black dial.
In 1965, Daytona's name finally appeared on the dial. That same year, Rolex introduced a new noodle version called "Exotic." The distinctive features of the Exotic dial include: - Dial outer edge track, color matching child dial; - The child dial now has a center cross, linear markers now have a square at the end - the chronograph at 9 o 'clock is marked 15,30,45 and 60 instead of 20,40 and 60 in the standard model. |
However, the Daytona name did not always appear on the subsequent ref.6240 dial, which for the first time had a screw-in button, making it completely waterproof. The watch also introduces a black plastic scale ring with white numerals on the steel bezel. Still 37 mm in diameter, the 6240 was produced only in 1969 and was made of stainless steel. The name of Rolex cosmometer now includes the word Oyster. The 6240 is one of the rarest Daytonas ever made.