Rolexopedia

Reference:116508: Difference between revisions

[checked revision][checked revision]
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
site-wide: domain move BezelBase → Rolexopedia (rolexopedia.net)
Deep audit: 116508 movement, dial variants, production transition and anti-slop prose
 
(6 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 13: Line 13:
}}
}}


<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] -> '''116508'''</small>
<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] › '''116508'''</small>
 
<div class="rp-lead">
[[File:Ref 116508 hero.webp|thumb|center|640px|alt=Rolex Daytona 116508 green sundust ''John Mayer'' dial resting on its guarantee card, model 116508 visible|Rolex Daytona 116508, green sundust ''John Mayer'' dial, resting on its guarantee card]]
</div>


The 116508 is the full yellow gold cal 4130 Daytona on a yellow gold Oyster bracelet, with an engraved 18k yellow gold tachymetre bezel — the 2016 successor to the [[Reference:116528|116528]] and the second-to-last engraved-gold-bezel yellow gold Daytona Rolex produced before the line moved to Cerachrom. The 40mm case, the vertical-clutch column-wheel chronograph, and the 72-hour reserve all carry over from the rest of the cal 4130 family, executed here in 18k yellow gold from end-link to bezel. What separates it from the 116528 is the dial programme. Rolex used the 116508 launch to introduce the green sundust dial that John Mayer would single out three years later in his 2019 Hodinkee Talking Watches appearance, and added the meteorite dial in 2021.
The 116508 is the full yellow gold cal 4130 Daytona on a yellow gold Oyster bracelet, with an engraved 18k yellow gold tachymetre bezel — the 2016 successor to the [[Reference:116528|116528]] and the second-to-last engraved-gold-bezel yellow gold Daytona Rolex produced before the line moved to Cerachrom. The 40mm case, the vertical-clutch column-wheel chronograph, and the 72-hour reserve all carry over from the rest of the cal 4130 family, executed here in 18k yellow gold from end-link to bezel. What separates it from the 116528 is the dial programme. Rolex used the 116508 launch to introduce the green sundust dial that John Mayer would single out three years later in his 2019 Hodinkee Talking Watches appearance, and added the meteorite dial in 2021.
Line 19: Line 23:
Production ran from 2016 to 2023, alongside the steel [[Reference:116500LN|116500LN]] that launched in the same year. The cal 4131 126508 then took the yellow-gold Oyster Daytona slot with revised case, dial, clasp, and movement architecture, keeping the engraved precious-metal tachymetric bezel.
Production ran from 2016 to 2023, alongside the steel [[Reference:116500LN|116500LN]] that launched in the same year. The cal 4131 126508 then took the yellow-gold Oyster Daytona slot with revised case, dial, clasp, and movement architecture, keeping the engraved precious-metal tachymetric bezel.


[[File:Ref 116508 hero.webp|thumb|right|250px|alt=Rolex Daytona 116508 yellow gold|Rolex Daytona 116508 — yellow gold Oyster with engraved gold tachymetre bezel, c.2018]]


==Core facts==
==Core facts==


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable rp-facts"
|-
|-
! detail
! detail
Line 168: Line 171:
|}
|}


The green sundust 116508-0013 arrived at the 2016 launch, the first corporate-Rolex-green dial on a Daytona, and it is the variant that fixes the reference's collector profile. John Mayer singled it out on Hodinkee's Talking Watches in 2019 and the nickname stuck.
The green sundust 116508-0013 arrived at the 2016 launch, one green Daytona dial introduced during the 116508 run. John Mayer singled it out on Hodinkee's Talking Watches in 2019 and the nickname stuck.


The meteorite 116508-0015 entered the catalogue in 2021 with three black-finished sub-dials on a natural meteorite ground, and ran only two catalogue years before the cal 4131 successor took over — the shortest window of any cal 4130 yellow gold dial.
The meteorite 116508-0015 entered the catalogue in 2021 with three black-finished sub-dials on a natural meteorite ground and remained in the catalogue until the 2023 transition.


==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==
==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==


The 116508 case is 40mm in 18k yellow gold, with the same lug, case-flank, and crown-guard profile as the rest of the cal 4130 family. Case finishing is mixed — polished bezel, polished case sides, brushed lug tops — and lug-to-lug runs around 47mm consistent with the rest of the in-house Daytona generation. Water resistance is 100m / 330ft. Triplock crown at 3 o'clock, screw-down chronograph pushers at 2 and 4.
The 116508 case is 40mm in 18K yellow gold, with the lug, case-flank and crown-guard profile shared by the 4130 family. Case finishing combines a polished bezel and case sides with brushed lug tops, and lug-to-lug runs around 47mm consistent with the rest of the in-house Daytona generation. Water resistance is 100m / 330ft. Triplock crown at 3 o'clock, screw-down chronograph pushers at 2 and 4.


The bezel is engraved 18k yellow gold with the tachymetre scale, and no Cerachrom ever reached it. Rolex held several configurations on the engraved-gold bezel through the cal 4130 generation and put the ceramic alternative on the 116515LN Everose and 116519LN white gold siblings. The numerical layout carries over from the 116528, with the scale running from 60 to 400 around the ring.
The bezel is engraved 18k yellow gold with the tachymetre scale, and no Cerachrom ever reached it. Rolex held several configurations on the engraved-gold bezel through the cal 4130 generation and put the ceramic alternative on the 116515LN Everose and 116519LN white gold siblings. The numerical layout carries over from the 116528, with the scale running from 60 to 400 around the ring.


The crystal is flat sapphire with no Cyclops. The chronograph pushers screw down to maintain the 100m water rating and have to be unscrewed before the chronograph can be operated, the same configuration the cal 4130 generation has used since the 116520 in 2000. Pusher-screw feel and travel match the rest of the family. Case-finishing routines at Rolex Service Center after 2016 have remained consistent with the 116528 era, with refinishing on heavily-polished examples a routine secondary-market issue that suppresses prices on otherwise good watches.
The crystal is flat sapphire with no Cyclops. The chronograph pushers screw down to maintain the 100m water rating and have to be unscrewed before the chronograph can be operated, the same configuration the cal 4130 generation has used since the 116520 in 2000. Pusher-screw feel and travel match the rest of the family. Case-finishing routines at Rolex Service Center after 2016 have remained consistent with the 116528 era, and heavily polished examples should be assessed separately from factory finishing.


==Bracelets, end links, and clasps==
==Bracelets, end links, and clasps==
Line 186: Line 189:
Easylink is a lever-and-keeper inside the clasp body that gives five millimetres of micro-adjustment without tools. The Daytona never adopted the Glidelock micro-extension that came to the Submariner-line clasps in 2010, so Easylink is the only on-bracelet adjustment the 116508 ever offered. The clasp blade carries a date code in the random three-character alphanumeric format that has run across the Rolex Sport line since 2011, and on SEL bracelets the date code, part number, and Rolex crown are stamped into the underside of the end link itself rather than the clasp blade alone. See [[Reference:Bracelets]] for the full date-code key.
Easylink is a lever-and-keeper inside the clasp body that gives five millimetres of micro-adjustment without tools. The Daytona never adopted the Glidelock micro-extension that came to the Submariner-line clasps in 2010, so Easylink is the only on-bracelet adjustment the 116508 ever offered. The clasp blade carries a date code in the random three-character alphanumeric format that has run across the Rolex Sport line since 2011, and on SEL bracelets the date code, part number, and Rolex crown are stamped into the underside of the end link itself rather than the clasp blade alone. See [[Reference:Bracelets]] for the full date-code key.


The 78498 designation appears in some auction catalogue and dealer documentation for the full yellow gold Oyster bracelet variant; documentation across published sources is uneven, and the bracelet is more often identified by material rather than by reference number on auction lots. David Boettcher's broader Daytona bracelet reference at vintagewatchstraps.com carries the configuration alongside the steel and Rolesor variants without breaking it out as a numbered branch.
A Bonhams London lot catalogued in December 2023 (mother-of-pearl dial, diamond hour markers) stamps its bracelet "78598 Oyster link" directly on the case description, which fixes the full yellow gold Oyster reference number from the piece rather than from a parts list. David Boettcher's broader Daytona bracelet reference at vintagewatchstraps.com carries the configuration alongside the steel and Rolesor variants without breaking it out as a numbered branch.


==Special branches==
==Special branches==
Line 192: Line 195:
===The "John Mayer" green sundust===
===The "John Mayer" green sundust===


The 116508-0013 green sundust is the reference's headline collector variant, and a sharp departure from the cal 4130 palette of champagne, black, white, and mother-of-pearl. Hodinkee's Talking Watches episode featuring John Mayer (2019) singled the watch out as an underappreciated current-production reference, and the secondary market re-rated it in the months that followed. Authorised-dealer waitlists ran for years through the late 2010s and early 2020s, and completed private trades climbed steeply through the 2021–2022 luxury-watch peak before correcting alongside the rest of the modern-Daytona market in 2023.
The 116508-0013 green sundust is a documented dial variant. John Mayer discussed the watch on Hodinkee’s Talking Watches in 2019, which led to the collector nickname. The cited sources do not establish a general market effect from that episode.
 
[[File:Ref 116508 dial.webp|thumb|right|280px|alt=Rolex Daytona 116508 yellow gold Oyster with engraved gold tachymetre bezel, straight-on view|Straight-on studio view of the 116508 in yellow gold with the green sundust dial]]


The "John Mayer" nickname is collector usage rather than a Rolex designation, and Rolex has issued no commentary on the variant's place in its 2016 launch programme. The end-of-production cutover in 2023 closed the window without a successor — the cal 4131 126508 catalogue at launch carried no green sundust dial, which leaves the 116508-0013 as the only Rolex-catalogue green Daytona of any era through that period.
The "John Mayer" nickname is collector usage rather than a Rolex designation, and Rolex has issued no commentary on the variant's place in its 2016 launch programme. The end-of-production cutover in 2023 closed the window without a successor — the cal 4131 126508 catalogue at launch carried no green sundust dial, the 116508-0013 therefore remains a documented green-dial configuration of this generation.


===Meteorite 116508-0015===
===Meteorite 116508-0015===


The meteorite-dial variant was introduced in 2021 with a reverse-panda layout — meteorite base, three black-finished sub-dials, applied gold markers and hands. Production ran two catalogue years before the cal 4131 successor took over in 2023. The dial is cut from a slice of the Gibeon meteorite (Namibia, 1836), and individual examples differ in the visible Widmanstätten pattern. The variant entered the secondary market at a clear premium to the standard layouts and has held that position through the post-discontinuation period.
The meteorite-dial variant was introduced in 2021 with a reverse-panda layout — meteorite base, three black-finished sub-dials, applied gold markers and hands. Production ran two catalogue years before the cal 4131 successor took over in 2023. The dial is cut from a slice of the Gibeon meteorite (Namibia, 1836), and individual examples differ in the visible Widmanstätten pattern. The cited records do not establish a general price premium for the meteorite configuration.


The 116508-0015 was part of a three-watch precious-metal Daytona meteorite group rather than a one-off yellow-gold experiment. Rolex paired meteorite with yellow gold 116508 and Everose 116505 on Oyster bracelets with engraved metal bezels, while the white-gold 116519LN used the Oysterflex/Cerachrom configuration. The 116508-0015 is the yellow-gold Oyster expression of that programme — full bracelet, gold bezel, black registers, and a natural-material dial that makes no two correct examples identical.
The 116508-0015 was part of a three-watch precious-metal Daytona meteorite group rather than a one-off yellow-gold experiment. Rolex paired meteorite with yellow gold 116508 and Everose 116505 on Oyster bracelets with engraved metal bezels, while the white-gold 116519LN used the Oysterflex/Cerachrom configuration. The 116508-0015 is the yellow-gold Oyster expression of that programme — full bracelet, gold bezel, black registers, and a natural-material dial that makes no two correct examples identical.
Line 208: Line 213:
==Auction record==
==Auction record==


The 116508 auction record is anchored by the green sundust 116508-0013 — the green-dial variant has appeared at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips at premium estimates throughout the 2019–2024 period, with the John Mayer effect and the post-2023 discontinuation both pushing pricing well above the engraved-gold floor for the configuration. The meteorite 116508-0015 has carried similarly premium pricing since the 2021 introduction, with the two-year production window and the natural-material dial both driving auction interest.
Only one full-watch 116508 lot found in the searched auction record actually sold: an unworn "new old stock" green sundust example, case L954T643, at Antiquorum's Monaco sale on 19 July 2022. It brought EUR 110,500 against a EUR 49,700–100,000 estimate (equivalent to roughly USD 53,000–106,000 or CHF 50,000–100,000 at the time), above the high estimate. Two later Bonhams Hong Kong lots of the same green dial — both catalogued by Bonhams itself under the "John Mayer" name in the lot title, not as collector slang — did not sell: one estimated at HK$500,000–800,000 in October 2022, the other at HK$450,000–650,000 in December 2022. A diamond-set mother-of-pearl 116508 also passed at Bonhams London in December 2023 against a GBP 32,000–42,000 estimate.


Standard champagne, black, and white-Panda 116508s anchor the floor of the cal 4130 yellow gold Oyster market, with full-set examples carrying matching box, papers, and Rolex code card commanding a clear premium over partial-set lots. The reference trades on configuration and provenance rather than on headline single-watch records — no 116508 lot has approached the kind of single-artifact result that defines Paul Newman's 6239 or the Unicorn 6265.
The Antiquorum result and the two unsold Bonhams lots sit either side of the 2022 turn in the wider watch market — the sold NOS example predates it by months, the two passed green-dial lots follow it — but three data points from a handful of catalogued lots are a lead on timing, not a demonstrated pricing pattern for the reference or the green dial specifically. No 116508 lot in the searched record approaches the kind of single-artifact result that defines Paul Newman's 6239 or the Unicorn 6265.


The 2023 transition to the 126508 closed the engraved-gold-bezel yellow gold Oyster Daytona configuration permanently. Used prices have firmed across the post-discontinuation period, particularly on the green sundust and meteorite variants, and the broader cal 4130 yellow gold market now reads as a closed catalogue rather than live production.
The 2023 transition replaced the 116508 with the 126508. The cited auction sample is too small to establish how that change affected used prices.


== Related references ==
== Related references ==


* [[Reference:116500LN|Daytona 116500LN]] — Ceramic Bezel (2016–2023)
* [[Reference:116500LN|Daytona 116500LN]], ceramic bezel (2016–2023)
* [[Reference:116505|Daytona 116505]] — Everose Gold (2008–2023)
* [[Reference:116505|Daytona 116505]], Everose gold (2008–2023)
* [[Reference:116520|Daytona 116520]] — Steel, Cal 4130 (2000–2016)
* [[Reference:116520|Daytona 116520]], steel, caliber 4130 (2000–2016)
* [[Reference:116528|Daytona 116528]] — 2000–2016
* [[Reference:116528|Daytona 116528]], 2000–2016
* [[Reference:116518|Daytona 116518]] — 2000–2015
* [[Reference:116518|Daytona 116518]], 2000–2015
* [[Reference:16519|Daytona 16519]] — White Gold Zenith (1989–2000)
* [[Reference:16519|Daytona 16519]], white-gold Zenith (1989–2000)


See also the [[Reference:daytona|Daytona family index]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].
See also the [[Reference:daytona|Daytona family index]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].
Line 238: Line 243:
* [https://revolutionwatch.com/hard-to-thrill/ Revolution editorial, "Hard to Thrill", Revolution, 2017-06-20]
* [https://revolutionwatch.com/hard-to-thrill/ Revolution editorial, "Hard to Thrill", Revolution, 2017-06-20]
* [https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/ David Boettcher, "Vintage Watch Straps — Rolex bracelet and clasp reference", vintagewatchstraps.com, 2026-04-18]
* [https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/ David Boettcher, "Vintage Watch Straps — Rolex bracelet and clasp reference", vintagewatchstraps.com, 2026-04-18]
* [https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-ref-116508-oyster-perpetual-superlative-chronometer-officially-certified-cosmograph-daytona-lot-353-352?browse_all=1 Rolex Ref. 116508 Cosmograph Daytona, lot 352, Antiquorum Monaco, 2022-07-19]
* [https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27772/lot/528/rolex-or-cosmograph-daytona-john-mayer-ref116508-a-fine-yellow-gold-chronograph-bracelet-watch-circa-2019/ Rolex Cosmograph Daytona "John Mayer" Ref. 116508, Bonhams Hong Kong, 2022-10-05]
* [https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27738/lot/944/rolex-or-cosmograph-daytona-john-mayer-ref116508-a-fine-yellow-gold-chronograph-bracelet-watch-circa-2019/ Rolex Cosmograph Daytona "John Mayer" Ref. 116508, Bonhams Hong Kong, 2022-12-01]
* [https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28036/lot/7/rolex-a-fine-and-rare-18k-gold-diamond-set-automatic-chronograph-bracelet-watch-with-mother-of-pearl-dial-cosmograph-daytona-ref-116508-purchased-16th-june-2020/ Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 116508, diamond mother-of-pearl dial, Bonhams London, 2023-12-13]


[[Category:Daytona]]
[[Category:Daytona]]
Retrieved from "https://rolexopedia.net/wiki/Reference:116508"