WICKED Rolex Daytona Cosmograph on OysterFlex - 116518LN - DE GRIFF Hands On Review

Zenith El Primero video as indicated:    • Zenith El Primero - From HERO To ZERO...  
Rolex Yacht-Master video for more OysterFlexing:    • Rolex Yacht-Master 42 Hands-On Review...  

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The Daytona, has been around for quite some time. And believe it or not, this watch was initially an absolute loser. Nobody seemed to actually want to buy one. Fast forward, and we are looking at what is probably the most in demand Rolex ever made, albeit in a slightly different execution. This particular Daytona is quite different from the usual (steel) ones. Combining precious metals with the rubber Oysterflex bracelet.

The First series of the Daytona was powered by a good old Valjoux movement, a manual wind one to boot. This gets later upgraded to an automatic movement, Rolex’s caliber 4030. I say Rolex’s caliber, but if you dig a little deeper you see that it is in fact an El Primero movement. Rolex did tweak the movement a bit to their taste, lowering the beat rate from 36,000 beats per hour to 28,800, which should in theory imply that you need to visit the watchmaker less often for servicing. Now decreasing the beat rate should also help with the power reserve. While all that may be true, I also wonder if it wasn’t just done to simplify things a bit. Note that they also tweaked the escapement quite a bit. While these changes were made to the design of the El Primero caliber, the Rolex 4030 movement continued to be manufactured by Zenith. Rolex seemed to have been quite happy with that arrangement, as they used Zenith’s calibre for more than a decade!