Reference:116500LN: Difference between revisions

==Where it sits in the line==

[[File:Ref 116500LN generation-compare.webp|thumb|right|280px|alt=116500LN and 126500LN side by side|116500LN and 126500LN Panda side by side]]

The 116500LN replaces the 116520, which had run sixteen years on the same 40mm case, the same caliber 4130, and an aluminum tachymeter bezel that scratched and faded. On paper the change is a bezel swap. In practice it reset where the reference sat in the queue. Demand outran allocation almost immediately and never eased across the full production run.

===Black dial===

The 116500LN-0002 is the black-dial option. Layout matches the Panda: three subdials at 6, 9, and 3, applied white-gold indices, no date. The subdials are finished in a silver-grey snailed treatment that reads as a softer contrast against the black base than the crisp black-on-white of the Panda. The DAYTONA signature stays red, and the minute track sits in white printing.

==Special editions==

[[File:Ref 116500LN asprey-red.webp|thumb|right|280px|alt=Asprey red-dial 116500LN|Asprey red-dial 116500LN limited edition]]

A handful of 116500LN watches left Rolex's production flow with a second dial signature or a bezel-colour swap tied to one retailer. The most visible is the Asprey program: a red-dial series of 25 pieces delivered through Asprey, which customised dial and caseback (Antiquorum Geneva catalogued one in May 2025), plus two known piece-uniques, a purple dial offered at Sotheby's online in late 2023 and a yellow-dial 1/1 offered there again in December 2024. The release left no press footprint; Oracle Time presumes the 25 were placed privately through the boutique rather than on the retail floor. The watches carry an Asprey co-signature on the dial and a colour-swapped tachymeter insert, and no Rolex catalog documentation has surfaced.