Part 3 of 6: The Brief History of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona(This part of the write-up is in no way original nor is it researched by me. I’ve merely written this summarized write-up on the many many articles and forum posts I’ve found online into one nice compact reading. No pictures listed in this part of the review is mine nor do I claim to be mine. As always please don’t take any of the below to be fact, it is merely my interpretation of the details I’ve read online and may or may not be true)
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To talk about a brief history of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch, one must revisit the history of automobile racing in USA, in particular, Daytona beach. And off course, when one talks about the history of automobile racing, we only need look to the legend, Sir Malcolm Campbell, The Speed King. Sir Malcolm Campbell, born in 1885 had a long and lengthy automobile record breaking career. He completed his Grand Prix career in 1928 and went on to break the land speed record one after another. To keep this write-up short, Sir Malcolm came over to Florida in the United States and decided to race his famous Blue Bird race cars on a beach called Daytona beach. Back then I assume there wasn’t that many long stretch of roads and the best place to set his speed records would be on the beach. Just on Daytona beach, Sir Malcolm broke five world land speed records.
We can see one of his successful attempts in this youtube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFrwbkfXNvE The car looks exactly like the batmobile lol Doesn’t everything always looks cooler and better in the olden days?
It was during this period, Hans Wilsdorf (founder of Rolex) became very impressed with Sir Malcolm’s achievement, lifestyle and dedication to perfection which symbolizes the Rolex brand. As such, he became Rolex’s first long term Ambassador. There was even a Malcolm Campbell Rolex model at that time.
Sir Malcolm’s driving at Daytona beach had captured the world’s attention and Daytona beach became a hotspot for motor car racing. During that period a young man named William France Sr. also known as Bill France Sr. , an immigrant from Ireland and a big racing fan, set up a car repair shop in Daytona. However during 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell and other land speed record competitors decided to move to Bonneville Salt Flats due to the deteriorating conditions of Daytona beach. As expected they took away the limelight and fans with them. The city officials desperate to maintain Daytona Beach as a hub for racing decided hosted the first stock car race in 1936 promoted by a local racer Sig Haugdahl.
William France Sr. participated in the race and finished fifth. The race was marred with controversy as fans arrived without tickets, cars got stuck on the sands and many results was protested, the city also lost money on the race (sales from tickets was not enough to cover it and many fans turned up not paying). Mr. Haugdahl talked with William France Sr. and together they managed to organized another race in 1937. While less controversial the city lost money again on the race and Mr. Haugdahl decided to stop promoting these events. William France Sr. took over the job of running the course. Whilst under William France Sr. management the races continued and eventually in 1948, after discussing with other drivers, he founded NASCAR. William France Sr. was put in charge of managing NASCAR.
William France Sr then wanted to improve the existing track, to provide highest banking possible to allow cars to reach high speeds and give fans better view of the cars on the track. He met with the city commission whom supported his idea of such a track and leased him a parcel of land equal to 447 acres next to the Daytona beach international airport. After many struggles and sponsors including Pepsi-Cola and General Motors and from rich individuals, the track was completed in 1959. The Daytona International Speedway was created. It has since been home to the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR. The track was remarkable and true to his vision. 90% of the track can be seen at any one time from any seat.
Rolex offcourse with interest already into the automobile speed craze didn’t miss this chance for advertising. Here is a picture of an ad in 1960 showing William France Sr. marketing a Rolex Zephyr Osyter Perpetual.
Racing legend, Junior Johnson whom won the 1963 Daytona 500 was pictured wearing the same watch from the ad above
The link between Rolex and Daytona has been established. History is set to be made. (Does anyone else beside me think that Ridge Racer cartoons got their character model inspiration from Junior Johnson?)
The first Rolex Chronograph was the 6234 model introduced in 1955 (same year as our favourite GMT Master introduction! All you wearing your GMT master, right now wave your hands in the air!!! No no no… you with the GMT Master II put your hands down)
The term "Cosmograph" was registered and first placed in a Rolex watch dial in 1956 on an actual Rolex watch with a Moonphase. Thats right, the first cosmograph Rolex watch was not actually on a Daytona or Chronograph watch.
I don’t know about you guys, but have you ever wondered what the hell is the word “Cosmograph” doing on a Chronograph watch? Maybe we always skipped past the words when admiring the watch and assumed it meant Chronograph. Many theories to be had but the best I’ve found online is that it was inserted to reflect the moonphase complications on the above pictured watch but some people speculated that it was inserted in hopes that it would be adopted by the then very famous and news worthy space programs in US and Russia. THE SPACE RACE! However the bad boys in NASA didn’t choose the Rolex and went with … Omega Speedmaster to go to the moon… Boooo…..!!!! The rest is history for Omega *sigh* (hey you back there with the omega waving your hands.. put it down.. you won the battle but not the war. And no I deliberately did not insert the omega speedmaster picture in this write up)
The Rolex Chronograph term was inserted in the dial of their Chronograph watch right up till 1980s! After that onwards, the word Chronograph was then changed to Cosmograph.
If you find a Rolex Chronograph model 6263, you may find one that has the word Chronograph in it or the word Cosmograph in it. It is not a fake! It was just a name change by Rolex. That particular model actually has two variations
Anyway, in 1962, Rolex first used the words Daytona on their watches, which many identified due to the increasing fame of NASCAR Daytona 500 or more likely because of their homage to Sir Malcolm and his wonderful achievements achieved in Daytona Beach. Please note however, the watch used for this was not the watch that will eventually grow into the Rolex Daytona today.
In 1964 the grandfather, the original of the model that is the subject of this review, the Rolex Daytona first made its appearance. However at that time the words Daytona did not make an appearance. Instead the words Rolex Le Mans Chronograph was introduced.
It makes it shudder to think that the watch we all love today could have easily been name Rolex Le mans. Hm… if I say it many times I guess I could get used to it. But personally I think Rolex Daytona just sounds more cool. Rolls off the tongue. In 1965 however, the Chronograph watch that was eventually designed to the watch we all love changed its name to Rolex Daytona. The words “Daytona” was introduced on the dial signifying the brand’s sponsorship of the annual 24 hours Daytona race.
The rest my friends is history. The earlier movements for the daytonas right up to 1987 used a Vajoux sourced chronograph caliber 72. This was a good reliable movement however its weakness was that it does not have an automatic winding function and requires the owner to manually wind the watch constantly, resulting in poor sales and demand for the watch.
In 1988, Rolex introduced a self-winding movement, reference 16520 which uses a movement based on the Zenith Caliber 400 with some modifications. The Zenith Caliber 400 is a great movement and is one of the only self-winding movements at that time that met Rolex’s tough standards. Even so, Rolex modified the movement extensively adding: a new escapement with a much larger balance spring for better accuracy and more importantly reducing the balance’s oscillation rate from 36,000 bph (beats per hour) to 28,800. Many would say this would be a downgrade, but Rolex felt that an oscillation rate of 36,000 bph is not necessarily required and would requires higher servicing due to its maniac speed. The finally modification which users up to day will resoundingly feel is to remove the date function from that movement (why??? Whyyyy!!!???).
Removing almost 50% of the parts from the Zenith Caliber 400, the final movement was called the Rolex Caliber 4030. The other changes made to the 16520 models by Rolex was to increase the case size from 36mm to 40mm. Just perfect. The 40mm size is right on the money in my opinion. I think it was the 16520 model that launched the success of the Daytona till today. Excitement for this particular model was a high and it was a resounding success.
In the year 2000 at the BaselWorld fair, Rolex unveiled the new Daytona Reference 116520, with the movement Caliber 4130. This create a huge buzz in the watch community as this was the first new in-house movement from Rolex in over 50 years. The movement was completely in-house designed and built with greater efficiency, stability, accuracy and serviceability. The movement also introduced a high performance “vertical-clutch” chronograph coupling mechanism. This is the mechanism that is responsible for the smooth absolutely precise starts and stops of the chronograph seconds hand, for which the Rolex Daytona is so famous for. The vertical clutch also allows the chronograph function to run continuously for extended period with no impact on the time keeping accuracy! This is very much in line with Rolex’s pursuit for perfection in timekeeping. This VERY mechanism is the sole part responsible for me to constantly enabling my chronograph function to be switched on and moving, giving me great pleasure in watching all the hands turn. If it wasn’t there, I wouldn’t dare use the chronograph function all the time in fear of it affecting the time accuracy. What an important addition!
Rolex also simplified the movement’s counter system, which runs the minute and hour counters) and used the freed up space to increase the mainspring barrel and hence the mainspring size. The mainspring as we all know provides the power for the entire watch and as a result the new Daytona now has a 72 hours power reserve! Wondeful! Even with the chronograph functions on, its 66 hours power reserve. The new movement also uses less parts than the old movements which means less servicing required. The other noticeable change is that the seconds counter was moved from the 9 o’clock position to the 6 o’clock position.
I should also note Paul Newman in this write-up. When Rolex launched the Rolex Daytona, it wasn’t a huge commercial success. Noone wanted to buy it and it could sit on shelves in local ADs for years to end. It wasn’t until a famous movie star and race car driver named Paul Newman, decided to wear the Rolex Daytona before it exploded in the watch enthusiast scene. Here was a cool, handsome, famous, rugged man wearing the Rolex Daytona and he does not take it off. What neat way to market your product! To say the words Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the names Sir Malcolm Campbell and Paul Newman is always the words that follows.
Till this day, the models that Paul Newman wore, are auctioning off at crazy prices up to USD$250,000. They are rare and sought after, with the whole world in unision in acknowledging this important man's contribution to the fame and legend that is the Rolex Daytona.