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Joined: 30 Aug 2007 Posts: 688 Location: Las Vegas
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:20 am Post subject: The Cosmograph Daytona
Cosmograph Daytona
The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona is arguably, the most well known watch on earth. Say the name Daytona in almost any country and you get nods and murmers of understanding – even if there is an otherwise language barrier.
The Daytona has reached cult status it seems. Look at the wrists of celebrities, the wealthy, and the want-to-be’s. If there is a Daytona there, and there are a lot of them, it will be prominately displayed along with all the other badges and symbols that define us.
Sports watches and chronographs in particular, are constantly being re-defined and transformed, but the Daytona remains largly unchanged since its release in the early 1960’s.
Rolex introduced their chronograph watches in the 1930’s, with the basic two-button design we are familiar with appearing in 1937 with those watches that contained the Valjoux movement. Our beloved Daytona began to emerge in its present form in 1949 along with the Oyster case and familiar Cosmograh name. Finally, in 1960 with the appearance of the tachymeter scale on the bezel of the Cosmograph reference 6239, rather than on the dial, it morphed into its iconic present configuration.
By 1961 the name Daytona began appearing on the Cosmograph with the 6241 models, but the name stuck after a time and all Cosmos were known eventually as the “Daytona”, even if the name wasn’t there. Today the 6239 and 6241 references, manual wind, non-screw down pushers, are the grail watch for many collectors.
The 1970’s hailed the last major changes to the manual chronograph with the introduction of screw-down pushers in the reference 6263. This change allowed the Daytona to be listed as waterproof to 50 meters, and finally 100 meters in depth. In these early days, only the Gold and Two-Tone models sported “Chronometer” on the dial, the only manual wind models to do so.
The early Daytona used the very reliable Valjoux movement up until 1991 when favor turned to the Zenith El Primero movement which earned its’ place in history in 1969 as the worlds first automatic chronograph movement. Coined the cal. 4030, this impressive workhorse powered the Daytona until Rolex introduction of their own fully patented and in-house built Cal. 4130.
The 4130 Movement:
The latest and possibly best Daytona was introduced at the Basel World Watch and Jewelery Show in March of 2000. The 4130 design allows truly unique actuation for the start/stop/reset mechanics, while taking up less room inside the case allowing a larger, therefore, more accurate or precise balance system. The movement incorporates some important Rolex traits: a balance bridge rather than the usual balance cock seen in other movements; a large balance wheel; and lately, their own Parachrom Bleu in-house hairspring. The 4130 also moved the sub-dial configuration around with the sub-seconds now in the traditional 6 o’clock position rather than the earlier 9 o’clock slot; the sub-minute dial at 3 o’clock, and the sub-hour dial at 9 o’clock. The two horizontal sub-dials are also now 7 degrees above the center shaft rather than straight across as before. It is likely that this configuration was done to thwart counterfeiters.
It is likely the latest Rolex Cosmograph Daytona has firmly cemented itself in horological history both from an engineering perspective, and as a worldwide watch icon.
(Copyright 2008 Larry Draper) _________________ - Larry
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