OLEX RELEASED THE second generation of its now
iconic Daytona chronograph in 1988. I was a kid
in Chatham, New Jersey, an area densely populated
with wealthy stockbrokers and insurance salesmen
who worked in Manhattan. It was Wall Street’s hardest-charging
decade, and despite my young age, I started noticing the
businessmen in my town wearing their bonus watches, these
new Daytonas—mostly steel versions, but occasionally I would
catch glimpses of flashier, rarer yellow-gold ones.
Today the Crown’s flagship chronograph is one of the most
recognizable and collectible watches in the world. Many Daytona
models sell for three to ten times their retail price on the secondary
market. Paul Newman’s personal Daytona famously sold at auction
for $17.8 million in 2017. Waiting lists for new steel Daytonas are
years long. And it all started with this watch, the so-called Zenith.
When Rolex introduced the first-generation Daytona (a version
of which Newman owned) in 1963, it was a manually wound sport
watch that required frequent adjustments to keep time. By the ’70s,
it existed in a world of user-friendly quartz timepieces. So in the
mid-’80s, Rolex started buying an automatic chronograph movement
made by watchmaker Zenith and modified it heavily to create the
new self-winding second-generation Daytona, which replaced
the manual version.
The improvements weren’t just internal: The Zenith was also
larger than the first-gen Daytona, 40 mm as compared with the
original 36 mm. It received a few aesthetic modifications as well,
including the signature crown guard and contrast-color rings
around the sub-dials. The bigger profile and the super-legible dial
made the Zenith recognizable from across the room—a crucial
feature for America’s Gordon Gekko era.
Almost overnight, the Zenith Daytona—flashier and more
expensive than Rolex’s other sport watches—became the ultimate
status symbol for corporate raiders and Hollywood producers
alike. And once the second-generation Daytona caught on, the
emerging watch-collector class started snapping up vintage
models. The current Daytona craze, the insanely inflated resale
prices, the outrageous auction records: It’s all rooted in the
Zenith, which was replaced by the third-generation Daytona
(powered by an in-house Rolex movement) in 2000.
The new Daytonas are great, but my childhood fascination
with the Zenith abides. I’m especially drawn to the ones made
between 1988 and 1993 (like this one here), which have an unusual
upside-down 6 on the small hour sub-dial. A vintage gold Zenith
and a new gold Daytona cost approximately the same (around
$30,000)—for now. But given the Zenith’s historical significance,
the frenzy for these things might only be getting started.R
Everyone knows the Paul Newman Daytona, which can
sell for millions at auction these days. But the most
exciting version of Rolex’s most iconic watch model is the
Zenith Daytona, says L.A. artist Wes Lang.34 GQ.COM APRIL 2020 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOYCE LEE
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Celestial Being