All Daytonas are Cosmographs but not all Cosmographs are Daytonas
The name Cosmograph was originally used on the Rolex 6062 Oyster Moonphase watch from the 1950s; where, you must admit, it made a lot more sense as a model name. It then faded away and was resurrected for the 6239 in 1963.
The Daytona name almost didn’t happen.
We tend to think of Rolex as a very focused and decisive firm; this wasn’t the case in the 1950s & 60s; when there was often indecision about model names. The Submariner was almost called the Rolex Skin Diver and some watches found their way to the market with dials so marked, similarly some early Turn-O-Graphs are signed Monometer and the Rolex Daytona was originally planned to be called the Le Mans.
A commercial failure.
Part of the reason why the manual wind Daytona is so valuable today, is that not many were made; essentially, at the time, it was a commercial failure. When I bought my first Rolex in the late 1970s (A 1675 GMT), I enquired about a discount, and the salesman responded, “Sorry sir, we don’t discount Rolex, but if you want one of the Daytonas, I can give you 20% off”.
All gold chronographs are Chronometers but not all say so.
The movement of the manual-wind Daytonas is different in the steel and gold versions. The steel ones have movements regulated in only three positions, whilst all the gold ones are COSC-tested chronometers. However, the dials were only marked to reflect this in the last few years of the 6263 and 6265 production.
Least Rolex named watch
It is well known that all the manual-wind Daytonas used a movement from Valjoux, but what isn’t so well-known is that Rolex didn’t make the cases, dials, or hands, either. Cases came from Charles-René Spielmann (CRS), who also made many of the cases for Omega’s Speedmaster. Singer, Beyeler, or Stern made the dials. Hands came from Universo and other Swiss suppliers. The screw-down crowns came from Boninchi (who were purchased by Rolex in 2001). However, the watches were assembled, timed and tested by Rolex.
