How the Daytona Changed My Life 5 Years Ago
A watch, or more appropriately this photo of a watch, changed my life exactly five years ago. You may think I’m exaggerating but there is no doubt that my life is very different today than it would have been if not for the release of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116500LN cerachrom bezel with a white dial on March 16, 2016 at Baselworld. My wife may say that this photo took me deep into the abyss of watch addiction. Others that it brought me to the summit of watch passion. I prefer to look at it through the lens of the latter for the way it deepened my interest in watches and above all introduced me to a community of close friends I may have never met otherwise.
On the morning of March 16, 2016, I clearly remember seeing this Rolex-issued photo at the beginning of a Hodinkee article introducing the newly released Rolex Daytona. It was love at first sight. I owned a two-tone Daytona at the time, but I understood that this one was truly special. The black bezel introduced a sportiness to the watch while the white dial made it both dressy and classy. It’s no surprise that to this day, when asked or more appropriately, when asking myself, which would be my “one watch” this 116500LN is ALWAYS my answer. In reading the article, I came to appreciate that many had been clamoring for this version of the Daytona to be released for several years prior - more specifically since the 50th anniversary of the Daytona when the platinum with chocolate cerachrom bezel was instead released. I learned to better appreciate over time that the configuration with a black bezel recalled an all-time favorite: The Big Red Daytona 6263 of the 1970s and 1980s.
Back to that March 16th morning, I texted my brother-in-law, Jimmy, out in Los Angeles at what was likely an obnoxiously early time of the day for him, “Did you see the new Rolex Daytona. Rolex bringing out the big guns this year!” “Will you get one?” He texted back. “I’d love to but who knows how long it will take to get my hands on one.” I continued to stare at this photo for the months that followed. I read and re-read a second article in Hodinkee where Ben Clymer took a deeper dive into the specifications of the watch and also what the watch meant. I just couldn’t wait for the opportunity to own one.
And as I waited, my passion for watches began to accelerate. I started reading more about other “hot” Rolexes. I even managed to buy a Rolex GMT II Batman that summer. At the same time, I realized that a strong appeal of the Daytona was its chronograph configuration. The sub-dials add a layer of complexity to a watch that I find very appealing, regardless of whether the chronograph is engaged or not. There is something rather mesmerizing about having these three circles (sometimes two) captive within the broader circle.
I kept going into Boston’s Lux, Bond & Green, Tourneau and Sidney Thomas asking if they had received the watch. They all kept appealing to my patience. Toward the end of the summer, photos of the Daytona started to appear on Instagram posts. I specifically remember Julian Edelman, receiver for the New England Patriots, sharing a photo of the watch on his wrist. I came to meet Julian at a watch even a few years later and in our brief conversation, it was clear that this very Daytona had a similar effect on his appreciation for watches. At the same time, I never would have met him at a watch event if not for this Daytona.
I took a plunge toward the deep abyss of watch passion in September 2016. Midway through the month, I purchased my first Patek Philippe. It involved trading in a number of existing watches, including the two-tone Daytona I had owned since 2012. The Patek was a 5960/1A, a silver dial chronograph that I likely unconsciously associated to the Daytona while waiting for it. I felt both very nervous about the size of that purchase and excited by the prospects of owning my first Patek Philippe.
Only a couple of days later after bringing that watch home, I received a call from my best friend. He was in Downtown Crossing walking through one of the pre-owned watch dealers where he spotted the Daytona. “David, I think this guy is selling the Daytona that you’ve been looking for? It's sitting in the case.” Craig sent me the picture that propelled me out of my work seat and running to meet him. I remember walking into the store - a very bland alley where over a dozen watch and jewelry dealers displayed their items for sale in glass cases. This dealer was the first one on the left as I came in. I spotted Craig first, his eyes pointing in the direction of the case that protected the watch. I looked over, approached with great excitement and asked the dealer to take the watch out of the case.
As I tried it on, I felt this jolt of electricity traverse my whole body filling it with this wonderful emotion of love, lust and happiness. It was as good as I had hoped. The proportions of the watch were absolutely perfect. The black bezel offered that modern and athletic look. The gloss of the white dial glistened while the sub-registers stared at me like the eyes of some beautiful animal. Meanwhile, among this perfect composition of black and white, the red writing of “Daytona” popped out from the dial evoking the history of this mythical model that has made me dream for so long. I asked the dealer for his price: $16,000. It felt unreasonable after the recent purchase of the Patek 5960/1A and in the context of the retail price of $12,000. Yet it was clear that negotiating was not an option. The watch would be gone within minutes if I didn’t buy it then. I put my credit card down, walked away with the watch and to this day hold it as the cornerstone of my collection - my what-if-you-could-only-own-one-watch watch.
So how did this watch change my life, you might ask? It's just a watch after all.
This watch was in many ways exposed me to something I ignored the existence of up to that point: a community of watch lovers. My family flew out to Los Angeles a few months after acquiring the Daytona. We met there for the first time my long-lost cousin Jerome that I had heard so much about. A self-made entrepreneur who had started and sold two highly successful jeans companies, he invited us to his house in Santa Monica. Adorned with incredible art and surrounded by unobtainable cars, my favorite part of his household resided in his safe. As we shared over coffee the stories of our childhoods and respective fathers, who are brothers, he spotted the Daytona on my wrist. "I have a few of these," he said to which I responded, "I'd love to see them." He brought down a beautifully monogrammed LV watch case from his bedroom and as he unveiled its content, I got my very first whiff of true vintage Rolex. Six early Daytona's from the 1970s and 1980s were staring me, this time like a pack of wolves. Two Big Red 6263 Daytona's in steel - one with a black, one with a steel dial, two more 6263's but in gold - one with a black and the other a champagne dial, a black dial steel Paul Newman Daytona, and perhaps the rarest of them all, a gold Champagne dial Paul Newman Daytona. I proceeded to carefully try each of them on. The size and proportions of the vintage Daytona was meant for my smaller wrist. They felt incredible - like a time capsule to an era when watches were the actual instrument used to tell time and where chronographs were actually engaged to measure the passage of time, speed, heart beats and much more. At that moment, this first encounter with my long-lost cousin and his six Daytona's served as an inspiration for learning further about the history of the models that have succeeded each other since the launch of the first one in 1963.
Later that very same year - 2017 - Phillips hosted the highly anticipated Winning Icons auction where the elusive Paul Newman "Paul Newman" Daytona would fetch a record price of almost eighteen million dollars. That sale may very well have catapulted the Daytona as one of the most recognizable models from the most recognizable luxury brand in the world. Learning about the Paul Newman Daytona also further broadened my interest into vintage Daytona's. Yearning to own one and apprehensive to buy one from just anyone, there was no one better to ask than my cousin if he could introduce me to a trusted dealer. To my great surprise, he offered an even better option - that of buying one directly from him. He was willing to part with my favorite vintage Daytona of the era - the Big Red 6263 Black Dial. Sitting next to my white dial cerachrom Daytona, it felt at the time like the perfect two-Daytona watch collection. The DNA of this iconic model very much resounded and there was almost like a Ying and Yang effect with the white and black dials while the black bezels and red "Daytona" writings mirrored each other.
The success of the Paul Newman's Paul Newman sale inspired Phillips to host a themed auction in the spring of 2018: The Ultimatum Daytona. At that point, I was receiving the printed catalogues directly from Phillips. I flipped through the Daytona Ultimatum catalogue evening after evening upon receiving it, admiring the large-format photographs of 30 of the rarest and most delicious Daytona's and reading the scholarship that made each of them so exceptionally distinct from each other. The very beginning of the catalogue marked dates of the viewings of these Daytona's in different cities across the world. Like rock-stars, they were on-tour to the great delight of Daytona fans who may not be able to attend the Geneva auction in person.
My colleague and I jumped on the opportunity to drive down to New York to attend the Phillips New York viewing. I wore my newly-acquired 6263 Big Red for the occasion. This was my first auction viewing and I was struck by the actual opportunity to hold any of the 30 Daytona's in my own hands - or more appropriately around my own wrist. I met two celebrities of the watch world that evening: Hodinkee's Ben Clymer and Phillips' Paul Boutros. Both kindly complimented my 6263 and I am not sure why I was surprised, but both were extremely kind with their time and words. I felt truly welcomed by these authorities of the watch world that I had been admiring from afar by reading their articles and listening to their podcasts.
At the conclusion of the evening, Paul Boutros asked me, "Will you join us in Geneva?" Who, me? Was he asking me? Well, why not? So, on May 11th, less than two weeks later, I was on a flight out to Geneva for the Daytona Ultimatum and Phillips Geneva Watch Auction Seven auction sales. Sitting next to me on the flight was none other than my mother - an early inspiration for my watch passion and the one who gifted me my first Rolex to commemorate my university graduation in 2001. It was an incredible weekend. The buzz around Geneva ticked like a high-frequency watch. Mom and I went from preview to preview, admiring some highly coveted and historical watches that I had only seen on internet or auction catalogue photos. We also met some great people of the watch world. I remember my mother going up to John Goldberger and asking to borrow his lighter. I also had a particularly enjoyable encounter with William Massena as we sat across from each other at the preview of one of the other sales that weekend hosted by Sotheby’s. I asked him for advice as an auction newbie and he went on to offer some extremely helpful tips. “Bid late.” he said, “Otherwise you’re only going to be bidding against yourself.”
On Saturday May 12th, 2018, mom and I attended the Daytona Ultimatum at L'Hotel de la Reserve, a few minutes' drive from the city center. The thirty lots took a couple of hours under the masterful orchestrating of auctioneer Aurel Bacs. The atmosphere in the room was even more electric than around town. I looked around to appreciate the passion that so many carried for this model with applause following the hammer of almost every sold Daytona.
We stayed that afternoon for the general watch sale where Patek Philippe’s, Audemars Piguet’s, Breguet’s, Vacheron Constantin’s, Omegas and many more would join in the fun alongside Rolex. I had spotted that morning a beautiful Breguet Type XX chronograph. The watch was given to a French Air Force captain back in the 1950’s. Throughout its life in the French military, its case back had been engraved with Fin de Guarantie dates essentially signifying a warranty period. The latest date on the watch corresponded to seven days before the day I was born. With a little encouragement from my mother and a lot of encouragement from the adrenaline fostered by the excitement in the room, I successfully bid on it. While the Daytona is my one watch, this Breguet Type XX is my "Man and His Watch" watch as it captures this unforgettable weekend.
A cherished friendship with Paul Boutros started that weekend too. He was kind enough to come up to Boston in the summer of 2018 for a watch gathering with local watch enthusiasts. I had the opportunity to interview him on his watch tastes, the sources of his passion and of course, the behind-the-scenes world of watch auctions.
Paul's guidance to this day has helped me build a strong collection with a keen focus on truly loving and appreciating each watch. He always reminds me, "the key to long-term satisfaction in a watch is wrist fit. Always ask yourself, do you love it on your wrist?" How many mistakes has that helped me avoid? Paul was also the source for acquiring the watch that marked my 40th birthday. After several unsuccessful bidding battles, Paul helped me identify and successful big on a vintage gold 6265 Daytona in the most incredible condition that I have ever come across. The adventure of behind Paul helping me acquire this watch was actually featured in an online interview of Paul.
Back in Boston, I was indeed starting to meet people who carried a similar passion for watches. I was introduced to a young gentleman by my fitness trainer. Sam and I met for the first time one Saturday morning at a coffee bar not far away from home. He often recalls the story of me bringing my black watch briefcase with me and joking that I was lucky to make it out of there alive and with all my watches. Our friendship developed and it was a strong catalyst for inviting others to join us in our watch discussions. One person we invited was another gentleman that I ran into at the store of our common trusted pre-owned watch dealer, Paul Duggan. Jason and I often went to Paul's to admire his inventory. Paul's salesperson, Shirley, made sure that Jason and would be introduced on that day we came in at the same time. Our friendship started on that day and has only amplified with time. Jason has assumed the role of watch therapist for me. When weighing the pros and cons of buying or selling a watch, of what's a fair price, of how it fits in my collection, Jason offers this very objective wisdom free of any bias. It also helps that we have very similar tastes, including a common love for the Cosmograph Daytona.
These friendships with Sam and Jason established the beginning of a watch community that we call today Escapement. Over time, we began to invite others to meet with us. We usually begin the evening over drinks and watch talk while my wife hosts her friends over a Zumba class. We then all come together for a nice communal dinner filled with good stories and laughs. As the name suggests, Escapement has provided the needed escape from the very stresses that can often take hold in our work and personal lives.
The basis for the group is a common passion for watches but it also comes with a high sense of respect and even encouragement for one another. We've managed to avoid the jealousies that can sometimes take place in such forums. We have also proudly assembled a highly diverse group. This diversity comes in the depth of knowledge of the watch world and experience in collecting. It’s in the more traditional diversity of the group: women, men, Blacks, Indians, Asians, Jews, French, Brits, Poles, Italians, young folks, older folks, middle aged crisis folks (that would be me). And our tastes certainly show some diversity. That said, one model one model finds its way at the heart of the collection of more than a third of its members: the Rolex Daytona, and especially the white dial 116500LN Daytona with a cerachrom bezel.
Watches and Escapement even brought me closer to my younger brother. Leo developed a strong appreciation for watches in these last few years upon joining Escapement gatherings, hearing of my endless watch interests, and building his own impressive collection. Leo also flew out with my mother and me on a second trip to the Geneva auctions in November 2019. It marked the first overseas trip that the three of us took together in two decades.
The Daytona has even featured for our family during this very strange COVID period. We adopted a rescue pit last fall. After days of debating names, my three children and wife agreed to forego the front-runner name, “Pickles”, to name her, “DAYTONA”. Her fur recalls nicely the chocolate color of the 50th anniversary platinum Daytona Bezel and subdials rings, and it was therefore only fitting to find her a sky-blue color to match the watch’s dial.
So, as I think about the way the photo of the Cosmograph Daytona changed my life in March 2016. It took me to places I wouldn't have gone to before. It introduced me to a world I knew very little about. It brought me even closer to my family. And above all, it ignited some of my most important friendships.