6265 Rolex Daytona, 18k Yellow Gold

To understand the Daytona is to not just understand the attitude of Rolex in racing, professional tools, and the Oyster case; today it necessitates understanding how small differences in production sum to huge differences in collectability. The gold Daytona has always been a trophy. The 6263 and 6265 mark the final evolution of the manual calibre, not desirable at the time but somehow you almost get the feeling that Rolex knew these would become legendary very slowly. In gold, way, way moreso. Heres the thing: a majority vintage Datejusts are in yellow gold and day-Dates as well. But professional vintage Rolex were made in steel. For this 6265, yellow gold is widely estimated to account for less than 8% of production.

No more than 2000 6265/6263s are thought to be gold, compared to 24000 in steel. Some say 1500. Either way, a fraction. However, there were two golds in the late 1960s: 14k for the American market and 18k for everyone else. This wasn’t discrimination, just good-old-fashioned import duty dodging. 18k tends to carry the larger premium, but Americans tend to appreciate 14k as one of the very few things in watchmaking that’s ours, like Tiffany. But this is an 18k, and that is king. It’s classic; Valjoux 727 with the upped beat rate and from 1986. It’s insane to think this was being made in the same year as the 3970. It’s no surprise that it didn’t sell widely, it was outdated. Today, there just aren’t many of these cases in great condition left.

And condition is everything in Daytona. This case has a lovely appearance, if lightly polished prior. Interestingly, a friend sent this example to me asking if the pushers were service. P302 pushers, often called Mk3 (with a line on the end) are correct after roughly 1977, where the switch occurred. Take that estimation with salt. That said, they’re often used as service pushers on earlier watches (this seemed like a learning opportunity). But Daytonas are about dials and this one slaps. It’s lovely. It’s not a special ‘Oyster Split’ dial or anything crazy, just a great champagne gold Daytona. And, if you ask me, it’s twice as attractive as a lemon PN. So things are just right from the start, like Ramsay’s Beef Wellington.

Otherwise, this example rocks. Yes, the case is lightly polished but truly lightly, it’s still lovely. The dial shows no signs of damage and the tritium is cream. It comes on a lovely 7205, probably not original but maybe. It might have been touched up, I can see it so I can’t tell, but it looks lovely even if lightly restored. It’s just a beautiful 6265, from a well-regarded Miami retailer.