Rolex Daytona Zenith Black Dial 16520

This watch is in excellent condition.

Watch comes with original box, outer box, booklets, hang tag and dated guarantee paper.

The 'Zenith' Daytona takes its name from the movement sitting inside the case, which comes from Zenith and was the world's first automatic chronograph movement. Rolex took this movement and modified it to remove the date function, allowing it to fit in the thinner Daytona cases. Today, they are highly collectible and represent a very different time where watchmakers happily shared movements, rather than attempting to do everything in-house.

Rolex's Daytona might be one of the 'hottest' watches on the market today, but this wasn't always the case. The watch started out as the 'Cosmograph', seemingly named to coincide with NASA's efforts to explore the frontiers of space. Alas, Omega's Speedmaster won out and became the Moonwatch, leaving Rolex's new watch lacking a sense of purpose.

It wasn't until 1964 when Rolex rebranded the chronograph by associating it with the Daytona International Speedway, making the watch a racecar driver's tool. Even still, it never enjoyed much success until Rolex once again rebranded in the late 1980s, giving the Daytona a polished bezel and new dial that gave the watch a much more contemporary and luxurious feel. As the new watch grew in popularity, so did Rolex's vintage models. Today, both new and old alike are highly sought-after, with collectors appreciating the history as well as design of the now-iconic watch.

ROLEX

Known by many simply as "the Crown", Rolex has certainly done much to deserve its reputation. From its founding just over a century ago by a German immigrant in the UK, Rolex has grown to become an international behemoth, recognisable (and indeed visible) across the globe.

Compared to other modern watchmakers, Rolex is in the near-unique position where its vintage watches have developed an almost entirely distinct collector base. It's no surprise, however, given the diversity and iconic status of so many Rolex models. The vintage Rolex community has arguably brought vintage watch collecting into the mainstream by shedding light on the beauty of old, worn watches which had so long been ignored by most.