Rolex's Newest Daytona Features a Gold Case and Hundreds of Diamonds

The Rolex Daytona is the world's most recognizable sports watch: it's named after the famous speedway and awarded to the professional race car drivers who win the rigorous speed tests there The Daytona is also the vehicle used to showcase some of Rolex's most artistic métiers applications, including jeweling For the new piece, Rolex replaced the iconic tachymeter scale on the bezel with 36 trapeze-cut diamonds totaling 458 carats, and decorated the dial with swirls of black lacquer surrounded by 243 diamonds set in an abstract, snake-like pattern, punctuated by eight diamond markers set in yellow gold.

The Daytona is the model that housed Rolex's first in-house chronograph movement, and has been continuously updated since It now houses Rolex's first in-house automatic chronograph caliber, the 4130, with a hairspring made of blue Parachrom, a proprietary paramagnetic alloy that Rolex says is up to 10 times more precise than a traditional hairspring Rolex attaches a five-year guarantee to the movement.

If the regular Daytona is rare and elusive, the decorated Daytona is even rarer still. . Source