Rolex Daytona Manual Winding

"After numerous examinations carried out on Rolex Daytona watches, the object of this research, certain “contrasts” were noticeable, especially regarding manual winding models (most of all in steel) with dials that are not coeval with the rest of the watch.

We believe that these discrepancies are mainly due to the owner’s desire to change the color of the dial in order to “renew” the look of their watch, considering also that Rolex offered the same reference with a choice of two dials (silver or black in case of stainless steel).

Furthermore, this replacement was simplified by dealers who had dials for manual winding Daytona watches ready in stock. The available dials, with the exception of some remainder, obviously featured the graphics of that time and back then no one paid attention to whether the substituted dial was more or less coeval with the rest of the watch.

Other examples of this dial replacement are mainly found on the ref. 6240 (the first to introduce the screwdown buttons) which was fitted with dials either with or without the word OYSTER. It was once believed that all dials of the ref. 6240 should feature the word OYSTER. Hence, in the beginning, those without the word OYSTER were substituted, but in recent times it was discovered that the early production models were fitted with dials without the word OYSTER (and therefore the dials were exchanged once more in order to restore the watch to its original condition).

Not even the self-winding Daytona watches are excluded from this kind of dial change. It is not unusual to find watches with exchanged dials, which therefore have different features compared to the original ones."- Gino Balbi