6265 Rolex Daytona, 18k Yellow Gold

Special non-Paul Newman is a ton of fun these days. This is a 6265 in 18k yellow gold. It’s about as accessible as something akin to JPS can get. Despite nearly 2 decades of production, just a fraction of manual Daytonas were made precious, most estimate about 8%. Only ~2000 examples of 6265 and 6263 were made in gold of any sort. Compare that to about 25000 in steel. They were tools at the time, it was fairly unusual for anyone to want one in gold. It still is today, but for different reasons.

There were two types of gold Daytonas 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. How history repeats. Anyway, 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 1979. If you needed further evidence that gold was for luxury even at the time, it’s the gold 6265s that Rolex sent in for COSC. Not steel. 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 It’s no surprise that it didn’t sell widely, it was outdated.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. 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. The subdials are just moving off black, to an almost eggplant that actually compliments the lower right lug oxidation magically. You either love oxidation or you don’t, that’s up to you. But a gold 6265? If you don’t love it, medical attention is in order.

This example is at auction, about to hammer. The condition report notes pretty much example what the watch images say, it's rad. However, it does note the bracelet clasp is F, which is right for the case. It comes as part of the current Phillips Watches Online NY.