The fine timepiece industry has been buzzing about Rolex Daytonas for the last several years. Partly this is due to the seemingly unlikely meteoric rise in value for not only the new Rolex Daytona’s which have been exceedingly difficult to acquire, but also for the Daytona’s manufactured in the past 50 years. Rolex Daytonas were one of the least sought after of the Rolex line in the 1960’s through 1980’s. Paul Newman and others became champions of the Daytona, and seemingly overnight collectors began to notice the value of the Rolex chrongraph.
The Reference 16518 was manufactured in the late 1990’s and came with a brown leather strap. It has the Tachymeter markings on the bezel allowing the wearer to accurately estimate miles per hour or kilometers per hour up to 400 mph/kph. Although only a limited few cars (such as the Bugatti Veyron) have the incredible power to even test the limits of the Daytona, Rolex is ready. The Veyron has a top Km/h speed of 408 (eclipsing the Daytona’s capacity of 400 by only 8 Km/h), but only can hit 254 mph. Early Daytonas only had markings to 200. As the base rate of speed by most racecars began to rise, Rolex adapted the timepiece to keep up to speed.
Although many Daytonas are made from steel, the reference 16518 is made from a block of pure yellow gold. Even the pushers on each side of the screw down crown are made from gold. Rolex continued to adorn this model with diamond studs acting as hour markers for 8 of the 12 hours. The 12 o’clock position is marked by the Rolex crown in gold. The 3 o’clock position is marked by the minutes/seconds notation rather than hours – marked with 15. Similarly the 6 and 9 o’clock positions are marked with 30 and 45, respectively. This is unique to most Rolex Daytonas since most hour markers remain as Arabic or Roman hour notations or have a stud in place of any hour notation.
The champagne dial with black inner dials completes the all-gold coloring with an exquisite look that is truly dazzling. The central sweep seconds hand allows an accurate reading of 1/8 second, while the two counters on the dial display the lapsed time in hours and minutes. The dial at 6 o’clock represents the small seconds. There is a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and 12-hour counter at 9 o’clock.
The Daytona Reference 16518 has a 40 mm diameter. It is waterproof to 100 meters and protected by a sapphire crystal face. The brown alligator bracelet has a deployant clasp.
Although Rolex has recently come out with a new rubber band for some of its new models, Rubber B has developed a band which supports the older Rolex Daytona’s with leather straps–including the Reference 16518. Rubber B has developed 8 color straps – 5 base colors, 2 VulChromatic (dual-color) straps, and one couture series strap which shows stitching similar to a leather strap, all made from pure Vulcanized rubber.
All Rubber B bands are manufactured in Switzerland. These rubber straps are calibrated precisely for the 16518 with “Blocked Integration” engineering for a flawless, motionless flush mount to the Rolex Daytona case. The Rubber B vulcanized rubber straps perfectly fit the original Rolex buckle.
The Rubber B bands extend the ability for the Daytona to be used in active sporting activities including driving in the extreme heat without the fear of bleeding since no coating, blends or bonding were used in the manufacturing process. Rolex Daytona timepiece owners can easily change the entire look of their investment with Rubber B’s colorful selection of Vulcanized rubber bands, while maintaining a comfortable fit. Rubber B bands are ready for action no matter if it is the boardroom or the beach. For more information on the Rubber B bracelets for the Rolex Daytona on Leather Strap Reference 16518 visit our page here.
