Reference:116518LN: Difference between revisions

The 116518LN is the 18k yellow gold Daytona Rolex introduced at Baselworld in March 2017, pairing a black monobloc Cerachrom bezel with the Oysterflex strap. It replaced the engraved-gold-bezel, alligator-strap [[Reference:116518|116518]] and shares five characters of reference number with it while changing almost everything a buyer looks at. Rolex's own launch page put it alongside two siblings in white gold and Everose, the [[Reference:116519LN|116519LN]] and the [[Reference:116515LN|116515LN]], as the first Daytonas ever sold on an elastomer strap.

Rolex's name for the launch dial is "champagne and black", later restated as "golden and black": a sunray champagne face with three snailed black counters, gold hands and gold hour markers edged in black PVD. Collectors named it the Pikachu, and the nickname stuck hard enough that it now travels ahead of the reference number. The 116518LN left the catalogue in 2023, when the cal 4131 generation replaced every Daytona at once.

Cerachrom reached the Daytona long before it reached the steel references, and it reached the gold ones first. Rolex's own 2011 model pages already carry a black monobloc Cerachrom bezel on the Everose [[Reference:116515LN|116515LN]], then paired with a chocolate dial on a black leather strap. The steel [[Reference:116500LN|116500LN]] did not get one until 2016. Sotheby's cataloguing has stated instead that the Daytona's Cerachrom bezel was first fitted to the platinum [[Reference:116506|116506]] in chestnut brown in 2013, and that black Cerachrom arrived with the 116500LN in 2016; Sotheby's own editorial gives 2011 for the gold rollout, which is what Rolex's archived catalogue supports.

What 2017 added was the strap. Oysterflex had launched on the Yacht-Master in 2015, and Baselworld 2017 brought it to three gold Daytonas simultaneously: yellow gold as the 116518LN with a champagne dial, white gold as the 116519LN with what Rolex called a "steel and black" dial, and Everose as the 116515LN, which had existed since 2011 and was re-cased onto the new strap. The engraved-bezel leather-strap gold Daytonas were finished. The 116518LN is the yellow gold half of that changeover.

Dial codes accumulated in waves. The launch configuration and one variant appear in 2017 and 2018; a broader set of seven codes appears through 2018 and 2019, taking in white, champagne, black and three diamond-set layouts; the meteorite dial and a further diamond-set black dial appear in 2021. Sotheby's dates the meteorite introduction to 2021 and calls it the most sought-after version of the model, which the archived catalogue supports.

The end of production is clean. Rolex's Daytona catalogue still lists the whole 1165xx generation in February 2023 and lists none of it by June 2023; the cal 4131 references replaced them across the board following the announcement on 27 March 2023. Case serials through the run use the random eight-character alphanumeric format with no public year mapping, so guarantee cards and hang tags do the dating work. See [[Reference:Serial-numbers]] for the full key.

The Pikachu is the champagne dial with black counters, not a black dial with yellow accents, and Rolex's own two names for it settle the point. Bilal Khan, writing at aBlogtoWatch from the 2017 launch, describes the dial as champagne with a sunray finish and black subdials, with hour markers in 18k yellow gold under black PVD and Chromalight inserts, and gold hands. The name comes from the yellow gold case reading against the black-on-champagne dial.

[[File:Ref 116518LN bezel.webp|thumb|right|250px|Case profile: the monobloc Cerachrom bezel holding the crystal against the middle case, with screw-down pushers and the Triplock crown.]]

The case is 40mm in 18k yellow gold on the standard Oyster architecture: monobloc middle case, screw-down caseback, screw-down winding crown with the Triplock triple waterproofness system, and screw-down chronograph pushers. Water resistance is 100m / 330ft. Rolex publishes no case thickness for the reference.

The bezel is a single piece of black Cerachrom ceramic that holds the sapphire crystal against the middle case, which is what "monobloc" means here — the bezel is structural, not an insert in a metal ring. The tachymetric scale is filled by depositing a thin layer of metal into the numerals by physical vapour deposition. Rolex's own description of the process has shifted over the reference's life. The 2017 launch page says "18 ct gold or platinum"; the 2022 pages for the same model codes say platinum only. On every Rolex image of the 116518LN the scale reads gold-toned, so the gold reading is the one the yellow gold watch supports.

[[File:Ref 116518LN bracelet.webp|thumb|right|250px|The Oysterflex strap, elastomer overmoulded on a flexible metal blade, with the moulded lettering on the underside.]]

Oysterflex is not a rubber strap in the ordinary sense. A superelastic metal blade runs down the centre of each half, overmoulded with high-performance black elastomer, which gives the strap the retention of a bracelet and the flex of rubber. Underneath, longitudinal cushions hold the strap off the wrist, venting it and letting the wrist expand without the strap losing its grip. Sotheby's describes the internal plate as a titanium and nickel alloy, matching the description aBlogtoWatch gave when the system launched on the Yacht-Master in 2015.

The clasp is an 18k yellow gold folding Oysterlock safety clasp with the Easylink 5mm comfort extension, so the strap adjusts by a full link's worth without tools. No Glidelock and no Oyster bracelet were offered for the reference. For the wider Daytona bracelet and clasp chronology, see [[Reference:Bracelets]].

Elastomer ages differently from metal. The strap is a wear item, and a 116518LN that has been worn regularly for several years will often be on its second strap, with the original gold clasp carried across. Clasp and strap have to be assessed separately from the watch head.

Four of the twelve documented dial codes are diamond-set, and all four carry Rolex's own gem-setting line on the spec grid. That matters on a reference where aftermarket setting is common and hard to spot. On the 116518LN, champagne, black and white mother-of-pearl bases with diamond hour markers in 18 ct gold settings are catalogue configurations with model codes attached. Anything outside those four codes, including pavé, coloured-stone accents and gem-set bezels, needs major-house documentation before it can be read as factory work.

===Price and market behaviour===

Rolex's published US retail figure for the black-dial 116518LN was USD 28,500 as of late 2021. European launch pricing in March 2017 was reported by Monochrome at EUR 25,000 for the yellow gold version against EUR 26,150 for white gold and Everose; the same publication gave EUR 25,250 and EUR 26,350 five months later, after the first of the annual increases that ran through the reference's life.

 

The 116518LN arrived into the middle of the Daytona allocation era and behaved accordingly. Gold Daytonas on Oysterflex were less supply-constrained than the steel 116500LN, though the Pikachu developed a following of its own on the strength of the dial, and the meteorite from 2021 has consistently outrun the standard dials.

The reference is thinly represented at the major houses, which is what a modern gold chronograph in wide production should look like. Most of the trade happens in retail and marketplace channels.

Full sets carry a clear premium on this reference, more so than on the earlier gold Daytonas, because the watches are recent enough that guarantee cards, hang tags and outer packaging should still be present. A 116518LN offered without its card is being offered incomplete, not merely unaccompanied.

* [[Reference:116518|Daytona 116518]] — Yellow gold, engraved bezel on leather, 2000–2015

* [[Reference:116519LN|Daytona 116519LN]] — White gold Cerachrom on Oysterflex, 2017–2023

* [[Reference:116515LN|Daytona 116515LN]] — Everose gold Cerachrom, 2011–2023

* [[Reference:116508|Daytona 116508]] — Yellow gold on bracelet, cal 4130, 2016–2023

* [[Reference:116500LN|Daytona 116500LN]] — Steel Cerachrom, 2016–2023

* [[Reference:116506|Daytona 116506]] — Platinum, 50th anniversary, 2013