“Floating Dial” Ghiera 200 – 1989
The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 16523, introduced in 1989, marks the beginning of the celebrated Zenith-powered era. This rare early example features the distinctive “Floating Dial” configuration, where the word Cosmograph appears separated from the rest of the text—a highly prized collector’s detail. The bezel, engraved with a 200-unit tachymeter scale (Ghiera 200), underscores its racing heritage.
HKD$230,000
The beginning of the Rolex journey starts in 1905, when Hans Wilsdorf, at the age of 24, creates his own company in London specialized in the distribution of timepieces. At the time, the precision of wristwatches was quite low, but Hans Wilsdorf foresaw a future that the wristwatches could also become reliable and not only elegant. To convince the public, the creator decided to equip his timepieces with small and very precise movements manufactured by a Swiss watchmaking company in Bienne. In 1919, Rolex moves from London to Geneva in Switzerland.
Introduced in 1989, the Rolex Daytona Ref. 16523 marked the dawn of the Zenith-powered automatic era. As one of the very first self-winding Daytonas, it combined Rolex’s iconic chronograph design with the modified Zenith El Primero movement (Caliber 4030). Early examples like the “Floating Dial” and Ghiera 200 bezel are especially prized, representing a rare transitional moment between vintage manual-wind Daytonas and the modern in-house chronograph era.
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