Reference:albino-daytona: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 05:09, 29 September 2026

Silver-dial Rolex Daytona catalogued as an Albino, case 2648447 — A 6263 catalogued as an “Albino” at Sotheby’s in 2025.

“Albino” is a collector and auction-house name for a monochrome silver-dial Daytona, usually discussed in connection with reference 6263. The name describes the dial’s appearance; it does not establish that the watches share a factory dial variant. Three identifiable watches appear in the sources below, but published counts differ and do not settle how many exist.

Core facts

detail	value
term	“Albino,” a collector and auction-catalogue label for monochrome silver-dial Daytonas
host reference	The documented auction examples discussed here were catalogued as ref. 6263
identifying traits	Silvered main dial and silvered subsidiary registers; dial printing and hands vary between examples
movement	Phillips and Sotheby’s list caliber 727 for their auctioned examples
dial origin	Disputed; no Rolex production record or definitive factory explanation is cited in these accounts

Documented examples

The sources identify three watches, but their count of the wider group is inconsistent. Hodinkee wrote in 2013 that three examples were known. Phillips described Clapton’s watch in 2015 as one of four known white-dial Cosmographs. Perezcope later wrote of three known examples, while Sotheby’s called the 2025 watch one of “a handful.” These statements use different dates and wording; they do not provide a verified population count.

watch	identifying record	what the source says
Eric Clapton’s former watch	Case 2,874,334; auctioned by Christie’s in 2003, Sotheby’s in 2008, and Phillips in 2015	Phillips lists ref. 6263, stamped 6262 inside the caseback, and caliber 727. The 2008 Sotheby’s catalogue says the 6262 back was probably a Rolex service replacement.
Watch shown to Hodinkee by Eric Ku	Hodinkee article by Benjamin Clymer, 17 July 2013; no case number published	Ku described it as a production dial on a production watch. The article gives no Rolex document supporting that account and says Ku later sold the watch to a collector.
Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi lot 340	Case 2,648,447; sold 5 December 2025	Sotheby’s lists ref. 6263, caliber 727, 36mm, and a caseback stamped 6239. The lot result is not visible on Sotheby’s page; Perezcope reports USD 952,500 including premium.

What the published sources say about the dial

In 2013, Benjamin Clymer’s Hodinkee article described the second watch brought by Eric Ku as a production dial fitted to a production watch. That is Ku’s account as reported by Clymer; the article cites no Rolex record or factory confirmation. It also records that Ku had sold the watch to a collector.

Sotheby’s 2025 catalogue calls the dial’s origin unknown and says the design was not part of regular commercial production. Its lot details give the caseback stamp as 6239, although the watch is catalogued as a 6263. That marking is relevant to the watch’s history and should not be omitted when describing the case.

In December 2025, Perezcope published a different account based in part on testimony it attributes to dealer Tom Bolt. Perezcope says Bolt told the author he created Clapton’s watch in the late 1990s by fitting a silver dial from a ref. 6238 into a 6263 case, and that Bolt coined the “Albino” name. In a later update, Perezcope says Bolt told Sotheby’s representatives that he had created the first example and that the dials came from 6238 service watches. This is attributed testimony about Clapton’s watch and Bolt’s account of other dials; the article does not supply a Rolex factory record for the full group.

Perezcope also points to the hands and pushers on Sotheby’s 2025 lot as inconsistent with its circa-1971 dating. Those are Perezcope’s comparative observations, not findings published in Sotheby’s lot description. The available sources therefore document competing accounts, not a settled origin for every dial called “Albino.”

Auction record for Clapton’s watch

These are three sales of the same watch, not three separate Albino examples. Prices are reported by the cited sources; currencies and sale dates are shown as catalogued.

sale	result
Christie’s New York, 5 June 2003, lot 178	USD 50,190
Sotheby’s New York, 2008, lot 166	Approximately USD 505,000; Sotheby’s page now hides the result behind login
Phillips Geneva, 10 May 2015, lot 214	CHF 1,325,000

Sotheby’s public auction search records the separate Abu Dhabi lot 340 at USD 952,500 including premium in December 2025; the lot page itself still places the result behind login. Perezcope independently reported the same result.

Relation to reference 6263

The auctioned watches discussed here were catalogued as 6263s, but their dial and case details differ. Phillips records Clapton’s watch as ref. 6263 with a 6262 caseback stamp; Sotheby’s records the 2025 watch as ref. 6263 with a 6239 caseback stamp. See Daytona 6263 for the reference’s standard production configurations. “Albino” alone is not enough to establish that a dial, case or movement is original to a particular watch.

Related references

Sources

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rolex Albino Daytona}}
 {{#seo:
-|title=Rolex Albino Daytona 6263 — White-on-White Dial Disputed Provenance — BezelBase
+|title=Rolex “Albino” Daytona — documented examples and disputed dial history
-|description=The Albino Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 6263 — a white-on-white monochromatic dial documented on three examples. Eric Clapton's example traded from USD 50,190 at Christie's in 2003 to USD 952,500 at Sotheby's in 2025. The factory-versus-Tom-Bolt-construction dispute between Hodinkee (2013) and Perezcope (2025) remains unresolved in editorial.
+|description=Auction catalogues and watch writers use “Albino” for monochrome silver-dial Daytonas, including three identifiable 6263 examples. Published accounts disagree about the dial origins.
-|keywords=Albino Daytona, Albino 6263, Rolex Albino, Eric Clapton Daytona, Tom Bolt, Perezcope Albino, Phillips Clapton, white dial 6263, Rolex Cosmograph Albino
+|keywords=Albino Daytona, Rolex 6263, Eric Clapton Daytona, Tom Bolt, silver dial, disputed dial origin
-|image=Ref 6263 dial-albino.webp
+|image=Ref 6263 albino-hero.webp
-|type=article
+|image_alt=Silver-dial Rolex Daytona catalogued as an Albino, case 2648447
+|type=Article
+|og_type=article
+|modified_time=2026-09-23T00:00:00Z
+|robots=index,follow,max-image-preview:large
 }}
+<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] → [[Reference:6263|6263]] → Albino</small>
-<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] → [[Reference:6263|6263]] → '''Albino'''</small>
+<div class="rp-lead">
+[[File:Ref 6263 albino-hero.webp|thumb|center|640px|alt=Silver-dial Rolex Daytona catalogued as an Albino, case 2648447|A 6263 catalogued as an “Albino” at Sotheby’s in 2025.]]
+</div>
-= Albino Daytona (6263) =
+“Albino” is a collector and auction-house name for a monochrome silver-dial Daytona, usually discussed in connection with reference 6263. The name describes the dial’s appearance; it does not establish that the watches share a factory dial variant. Three identifiable watches appear in the sources below, but published counts differ and do not settle how many exist.
-The Albino is a white-on-white monochromatic Paul Newman-adjacent dial fitted to the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona [[Reference:6263|reference 6263]]. Silver sub-dials on a white dial base, bearing only "Rolex Oyster Cosmograph" at 12 o'clock without the standard "Daytona" signature above the 6 o'clock sub-register. Three examples are documented to date. The most famous is Eric Clapton's, which has traded four times across twenty-two years — from Christie's New York in 2003 at USD 50,190 to Sotheby's Abu Dhabi in 2025 at USD 952,500. The Albino sits at the centre of the most disputed authenticity debate in the manual-wind Daytona literature: three publicly-stated positions on whether the variant is as-issued Rolex or a late-1990s Tom Bolt construction, each from a high-credibility source, each on the public record, each unresolved.
+==Core facts==
-[[File:Ref 6263 dial-albino.webp|thumb|right|320px|Eric Clapton's Albino Daytona 6263 at the Phillips 2015 sale (Perezcope)]]
+{| class="wikitable rp-facts"
+|-
-== What the Albino is ==
+! detail
+! value
-The Albino dial has a specific set of identifying features that distinguish it from any standard 6263 configuration and from any Paul Newman variant.
+|-
+| term
-- '''White dial base with silver sub-dials.''' The base dial is white and the three sub-dials are silver. The standard 6263 panda has a white base with ''black'' sub-dials; the Albino inverts that silver-to-white relationship without flipping to black.
+| “Albino,” a collector and auction-catalogue label for monochrome silver-dial Daytonas
-- '''"ROLEX OYSTER COSMOGRAPH" at 12 only.''' The 12 o'clock text reads the standard Rolex / Oyster / Cosmograph / T Swiss T lines but stops there. The "Daytona" signature above the 6 o'clock sub-register that defines the standard 6263 dial (and every 6263 Paul Newman variant) is absent on the Albino.
+|-
-- '''Printed hour markers, not applied block markers.''' Standard Paul Newman hour markers are applied block markers. Albino hour markers are printed on the dial, flush with the surface rather than raised. That distinguishes the Albino from any Paul Newman sub-variant — it is not a Paul Newman dial in the Mk-mark-typology sense.
+| host reference
-- '''Silver / pale bezel combinations in most surviving examples.''' The three documented Albinos have surfaced with bezel-ring combinations that complement the white-silver dial rather than the standard acrylic black 6263 insert. Dial-bezel combinations vary per example.
+| The documented auction examples discussed here were catalogued as ref. 6263
+|-
+| identifying traits
+| Silvered main dial and silvered subsidiary registers; dial printing and hands vary between examples
+|-
+| movement
+| Phillips and Sotheby’s list caliber 727 for their auctioned examples
+|-
+| dial origin
+| Disputed; no Rolex production record or definitive factory explanation is cited in these accounts
+|}
-== The three documented examples ==
+==Documented examples==
-Three Albino 6263 examples are publicly documented in the English-language auction record.
+The sources identify three watches, but their count of the wider group is inconsistent. Hodinkee wrote in 2013 that three examples were known. Phillips described Clapton’s watch in 2015 as one of four known white-dial Cosmographs. Perezcope later wrote of three known examples, while Sotheby’s called the 2025 watch one of “a handful.” These statements use different dates and wording; they do not provide a verified population count.
-=== Eric Clapton's Albino ===
-The most-traded and best-documented example. Clapton's watch has surfaced at four public sales over twenty-two years:
 {| class="wikitable"
 |-
-! Sale !! Date !! Price (USD) !! Notes
+! watch
+! identifying record
+! what the source says
 |-
-| Christie's New York || June 2003 || 50,190 || First public sale. Sold out of Clapton's collection into private hands.
+| Eric Clapton’s former watch
+| Case 2,874,334; auctioned by Christie’s in 2003, Sotheby’s in 2008, and Phillips in 2015
+| Phillips lists ref. 6263, stamped 6262 inside the caseback, and caliber 727. The 2008 Sotheby’s catalogue says the 6262 back was probably a Rolex service replacement.
 |-
-| Sotheby's || 2008 || ~505,000 || Second public sale. Approximately ten-fold appreciation over five years.
+| Watch shown to Hodinkee by Eric Ku
+| Hodinkee article by Benjamin Clymer, 17 July 2013; no case number published
+| Ku described it as a production dial on a production watch. The article gives no Rolex document supporting that account and says Ku later sold the watch to a collector.
 |-
-| Phillips, Geneva || May 2015 || 1,325,000 CHF (~USD 1.42M) || Third public sale. The 2015 result triggered the first editorial dispute coverage in Hodinkee's contemporaneous reporting.
+| Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi lot 340
-|-
+| Case 2,648,447; sold 5 December 2025
-| Sotheby's Abu Dhabi || 5 December 2025 || 952,500 || Fourth public sale. Lot 340. Drop from the 2015 ceiling reflects the forensic questions Perezcope raised in December 2025 — two days before the Sotheby's sale.
+| Sotheby’s lists ref. 6263, caliber 727, 36mm, and a caseback stamped 6239. The lot result is not visible on Sotheby’s page; Perezcope reports USD 952,500 including premium.
 |}
-=== The second and third examples ===
+==What the published sources say about the dial==
-Two further Albino examples are noted in the literature, generally attributed to John Goldberger (the collector whose Paul Newman collection has been catalogued across multiple Hodinkee and Phillips features). The two non-Clapton examples have surfaced less frequently at public auction and their individual provenance chains are less densely documented than Clapton's.
+In 2013, Benjamin Clymer’s Hodinkee article described the second watch brought by Eric Ku as a production dial fitted to a production watch. That is Ku’s account as reported by Clymer; the article cites no Rolex record or factory confirmation. It also records that Ku had sold the watch to a collector.
-== The three-way authenticity dispute ==
+Sotheby’s 2025 catalogue calls the dial’s origin unknown and says the design was not part of regular commercial production. Its lot details give the caseback stamp as 6239, although the watch is catalogued as a 6263. That marking is relevant to the watch’s history and should not be omitted when describing the case.
-The Albino is the disputed dial in the manual-wind Daytona category. Three positions exist in the published literature, each held by a credentialed source, each unresolved:
+In December 2025, Perezcope published a different account based in part on testimony it attributes to dealer Tom Bolt. Perezcope says Bolt told the author he created Clapton’s watch in the late 1990s by fitting a silver dial from a ref. 6238 into a 6263 case, and that Bolt coined the “Albino” name. In a later update, Perezcope says Bolt told Sotheby’s representatives that he had created the first example and that the dials came from 6238 service watches. This is attributed testimony about Clapton’s watch and Bolt’s account of other dials; the article does not supply a Rolex factory record for the full group.
-=== Hodinkee (Clymer, 2013) — factory Rolex variant ===
+Perezcope also points to the hands and pushers on Sotheby’s 2025 lot as inconsistent with its circa-1971 dating. Those are Perezcope’s comparative observations, not findings published in Sotheby’s lot description. The available sources therefore document competing accounts, not a settled origin for every dial called “Albino.”
-Benjamin Clymer's 2013 Hodinkee coverage treated the Albino as an as-issued Rolex variant of unknown production count. The framing positioned it as a legitimate rare factory dial produced by Singer in a limited run, fitted to a small number of 6263 cases, with the distinguishing feature being the absence of the "Daytona" signature on the 12 o'clock stack. The 2013 framing stood as editorial consensus for roughly twelve years.
+==Auction record for Clapton’s watch==
-=== Perezcope (December 2025) — Tom Bolt 1990s construction ===
+These are three sales of the same watch, not three separate Albino examples. Prices are reported by the cited sources; currencies and sale dates are shown as catalogued.
-Jose Pereztroika's forensic dossier published at Perezcope on 3 December 2025 — titled "Not Quite Whiter Than White: the reality of the rare Rolex Albino Daytona Ref. 6263" — argues the Albino is not a factory dial. The dossier's central claim: the Albino dial was constructed in the late 1990s by collector Tom Bolt, using a recovered [[Reference:6238|6238]] Pre-Daytona silver dial (from a missing-bezel 6238 Bolt acquired in South America) transplanted into a 6263 case. The 6238 hands, the argument continues, had to be used because the 6263 hands did not fit the 6238-geometry recessed sub-dials. The case Bolt used was 2874334 from his own stock.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
-The dossier documents Bolt visiting the Sotheby's Abu Dhabi exhibition the day before publication, meeting Sotheby's chairman of watches Sam Hines in person, and disclosing his role in the construction. The Sotheby's lot essay for Lot 340, which sold two days after the dossier dropped, continued to read "origins of the Albino dial are unknown" — the auction-house editorial choice not to adopt either side.
+! sale
+! result
-The Perezcope dossier carries specific forensic markers on Sotheby's Lot 340 (case 2648447):
+|-
+| Christie’s New York, 5 June 2003, lot 178
-- Discontinued thin-tapered sub-dial hands inconsistent with a 1971 production case
+| USD 50,190
-- A high-sitting 30-minute sub-dial hand, mismatched to period-correct fitment
+|-
-- Plating coming off the screw-down pushers in a pattern that reads as aged fake material rather than original Rolex gold-plated
+| Sotheby’s New York, 2008, lot 166
-- The 6238 donor-dial typography visible under magnification
+| Approximately USD 505,000; Sotheby’s page now hides the result behind login
+|-
-=== Sotheby's Abu Dhabi (December 2025) — "origins unknown" ===
+| Phillips Geneva, 10 May 2015, lot 214
+| CHF 1,325,000
-Sotheby's Abu Dhabi sold the third Albino example (case 2648447) as Lot 340 on 5 December 2025 for USD 952,500. The lot essay, despite Perezcope's dossier appearing two days earlier and Bolt's in-person disclosure to Sam Hines the day before that, took the position "origins of the Albino dial are unknown." The auction-house editorial treatment avoids adopting either the Hodinkee framing or the Perezcope counter — positioning the Albino as a documented dial variant without attribution to Rolex factory production or to Bolt's construction.
+|}
-== Why the dispute matters ==
-Three positions, each sourced, each on the record. The reader cannot resolve this from the literature. BezelBase's editorial standard is to capture all three with attribution, not to pick one — the same approach applied across every disputed Daytona variant on the wiki (the Unicorn 6265, the Neanderthal 6240, the cal 4030 modification list, the 116520 78490/78690 bracelet identification). The market will continue to assign prices to Albino examples; auction houses will continue to catalogue them; collectors will continue to form their own authentication positions. Each subsequent sale is a data point on the market's evolving read of the Perezcope dossier versus the Hodinkee / Sotheby's framing.
-== Relation to other dial variants ==
-The Albino is adjacent to but distinct from several other Daytona dial categories.
-- '''Not a Paul Newman.''' Paul Newman dials require block markers, cross-hairs on the sub-dials, and 15/30/45 sub-dial numerals. Albino dials have none of those. See [[Reference:paul-newman-daytona|Paul Newman Daytona]].
+Sotheby’s public auction search records the separate Abu Dhabi lot 340 at USD 952,500 including premium in December 2025; the lot page itself still places the result behind login. Perezcope independently reported the same result.
-- '''Not a tropical.''' Tropical dials are aged production black dials that have oxidised to brown. The Albino is a white-on-white layout, not an oxidation pattern.
-- '''Not a "standard" 6263.''' The standard 6263 carries the "Daytona" signature above the 6 o'clock sub-register. The Albino does not.
-- '''Shared 6263 case and movement.''' Whatever the dial's origin, the 6263 case and cal 727 movement are period-correct on the documented Albino examples — the dispute is dial-specific, not case- or movement-specific.
-== Host reference ==
+==Relation to reference 6263==
-The Albino is documented exclusively on the [[Reference:6263|6263]] case. No Albino-pattern dials have surfaced on the [[Reference:6265|6265]] (metal-bezel sibling) or any other manual-wind Daytona reference. Every documented Albino carries the acrylic black bezel insert that defines the 6263.
+The auctioned watches discussed here were catalogued as 6263s, but their dial and case details differ. Phillips records Clapton’s watch as ref. 6263 with a 6262 caseback stamp; Sotheby’s records the 2025 watch as ref. 6263 with a 6239 caseback stamp. See [[Reference:6263|Daytona 6263]] for the reference’s standard production configurations. “Albino” alone is not enough to establish that a dial, case or movement is original to a particular watch.
-== Where to go next ==
+==Related references==
-- [[Reference:6263|Reference 6263]] — full treatment of the host reference including other rare dial branches (Paul Newman variants, RCO / Oyster Sotto, Big Red, Sigma, JPS)
+* [[Reference:6263|Daytona 6263]]
-- [[Reference:paul-newman-daytona|Paul Newman Daytona]] — the broader exotic-dial category that the Albino sits adjacent to
+* [[Reference:6238|Pre-Daytona 6238]]
-- [[Reference:daytona-glossary|Daytona glossary]] — definitions for every named dial variant, movement, and bracelet reference
+* [[Reference:6265|Daytona 6265]]
-- [[Reference:6238|Reference 6238]] — the Pre-Daytona reference that the Perezcope dossier identifies as the alleged donor dial for Bolt's Albino construction
+* [[Reference:paul-newman-daytona|Paul Newman Daytona]]
+* [[Reference:big-red-daytona|Big Red Daytona]]
-== Source list ==
+== Sources ==
-* [https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-first-rolex-daytona-by-benjamin-clymer Historical Perspectives: The Very First Rolex Daytona, Explained] — Benjamin Clymer, Hodinkee, 2013
+* [https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/rolex-albino-daytona-ben-clymer Benjamin Clymer, “A Close Encounter With Just The Third Of Its Kind: Hands-On With The Legendary Albino Daytona,” Hodinkee, 17 July 2013]
-* [https://perezcope.com/2025/12/03/not-quite-whiter-than-white-the-reality-of-the-rare-rolex-albino-daytona-ref-6263/ Not Quite Whiter Than White: the reality of the rare Rolex Albino Daytona Ref. 6263] — Jose Pereztroika, Perezcope, 3 December 2025
+* [https://www.phillips.com/detail/rolex/CH080215/214 Phillips, The Watch Auction: ONE, lot 214, Eric Clapton’s former 6263, 2015]
-* Phillips Geneva, Auction lot catalogue essay, Daytona Ultimatum, May 2018
+* [https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/important-watches-n08433/lot.166.html Sotheby’s, Important Watches, lot 166, 2008]
-* Sotheby's Abu Dhabi, Important Watches sale, Lot 340, 5 December 2025
+* [https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/watches-jewels-ad2502/daytona-albino-reference-6263-a-stainless-steel Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi, lot 340, 5 December 2025]
-* Christie's New York, "Watches by Christie's" sale, June 2003
+* [https://www.sothebys.com/en/search-results.html?query=6263 Sotheby’s public auction search, closed-lot result for the 2025 Albino]
-* Sotheby's, Clapton collection re-sale, 2008
+* [https://perezcope.com/2025/12/03/not-quite-whiter-than-white-the-reality-of-the-rare-rolex-albino-daytona-ref-6263/ Jose Pereztroika, “Not Quite Whiter Than White,” Perezcope, 3 December 2025, updated 8 December 2025]
+* [https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/found-eric-claptons-vintage-rolex-submariner-with-rare-explo Eric Clapton’s former 6263 sale history, Hodinkee]
 [[Category:Daytona]]
-[[Category:Daytona Manual-wind]]
+[[Category:Daytona Manual-Wind]]
-[[Category:Paul Newman]]
 [[Category:Disputed variant]]