The Discontinued Daytona Le Mans Is Now Selling for $320,000
On Tuesday, we reported that Rolex cancelled last year’s $51,400 white gold Daytona Le Mans (Reference 126529LN) after a very short 10-month run. Now examples of that watch are begging as much as $320,000 on the pre-owned market.
Released to commemorate the 100th edition of the renown race, Rolex strongly associated the new Daytona Le Mans with Paul Newman’s 1963 Daytona which hammered in October of 2017 for $17.8 million—making it the most expensive watch in the world at the time.
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Paying homage to a vintage watch was something Rolex never did overtly—if ever—before. Short production runs were also not Rolex’s style. We likened the 2023 Le Mans to a limited-edition homage watch, which the always-cagey Rolex, of course, didn’t announce as such. But with the crazy high prices we’re seeing now, the 2023 LeMans is heating up on the open market just like any obscure, limited edition that nods to a storied brand’s legacy.
It’s difficult to know if there are real watches at the other end of the sales listings we’re seeing, or whether the sellers are merely fishing for potential buyers in hope of matching them with a possible seller. As with most hype-watches, there are usually some shenanigans involved in getting one on the open market, and there are often a handful of bad actors looking to take advantage of someone’s horological lust.
Since 2017, when Newman’s Daytona became the most expensive watch ever sold at $17.8 million, that oddball quasi-Art-Deco dial has been ubiquitously known as a “Newman dial.” But the origins of the fascination with that watch, as well as its nickname, apparently date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some speculate that a magazine cover in Italy featuring Newman wearing his Daytona sparked the early craze, though it is impossible to confirm this. Regardless of the exact origins, fascination with Rolex Reference 6263 went from a marginal enthusiast interest to something like horological mania after 2017’s auction. With the prices we’re seeing this week for the 2023 homage to Newman’s Daytona, it’s clear that the hype is still strong.
Barring members of Rolex’s inner sanctum, no one knows how many of the white gold 2023 Daytona LeMans were produced. A few wrist shots across social media, the somewhat repetitive public announcements of ownership from Hodinkee’s founder Ben Clymer, and abundant coverage across the watch press have made the LeMans as buzzy as any watch in the last year—perhaps the buzziest. With a $320,000 price tag—which amounts to just under six times the retail price—some owners are likely going to hear that buzz all the way to the bank.
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