Jump to content

Reference:116519: Difference between revisions

From Rolexopedia
[checked revision][checked revision]
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
Replace portrait hero with genuine landscape Bonhams lot photo; add turquoise Beach dial close-up to gallery
Deep correctness and anti-slop audit: Beach claims, strap fitment, mineral-dial attributions, production bounds, and auction language qualified.
 
Line 21: Line 21:
The 116519 is the 18k white gold, leather-strap Daytona of the in-house cal 4130 generation, the strap counterpart to the bracelet-mounted [[Reference:116509|116509]] and the successor to the Zenith-era [[Reference:16519|16519]]. Christie's dates the launch to Baselworld 2000, where the reference arrived with the rest of the cal 4130 family. Rolex's own catalogue carried it into early 2016, and the ceramic-bezel [[Reference:116519LN|116519LN]] took its place at Baselworld in March 2017.
The 116519 is the 18k white gold, leather-strap Daytona of the in-house cal 4130 generation, the strap counterpart to the bracelet-mounted [[Reference:116509|116509]] and the successor to the Zenith-era [[Reference:16519|16519]]. Christie's dates the launch to Baselworld 2000, where the reference arrived with the rest of the cal 4130 family. Rolex's own catalogue carried it into early 2016, and the ceramic-bezel [[Reference:116519LN|116519LN]] took its place at Baselworld in March 2017.


The dial programme is what the reference is remembered for. This is the Daytona that carried the four pastel "Beach" dials, delivered with colour-matched lizard straps, wallets and presentation boxes, and it is also where Rolex put sodalite, grossular garnet, meteorite and a long run of gem-set layouts on a white gold case. Rolex's published catalogue ran at least sixteen dial codes across the production; only a handful of those code-to-dial names survive in the public record, and the rest have to be read off auction catalogues one watch at a time.
The reference is documented with four pastel “Beach” dial colours, plus sodalite, grossular garnet, meteorite, and gem-set layouts. Auction records sometimes include colour-matched lizard straps, wallets, or boxes with individual watches. Archived Rolex pages and auction catalogues together show a broad model-code range, but they do not provide a complete dial-by-code history.


==Core facts==
==Core facts==
Line 84: Line 84:
==Where it sits in the line==
==Where it sits in the line==


Rolex launched the cal 4130 Daytona across five configurations in 2000, split by case material and by bracelet-or-strap. The steel 116520, the Rolesor 116523 and the yellow gold 116528 shipped on Oyster bracelets; the yellow gold 116518 and the white gold 116519 shipped on leather. The 116519 is the white-metal watch sold on a strap, with no factory Oyster bracelet option. That configuration belongs to the [[Reference:116509|116509]], which joined the catalogue a few years later and ran on into 2023.
Rolex launched the cal 4130 Daytona across five configurations in 2000, split by case material and by bracelet-or-strap. The steel 116520, the Rolesor 116523 and the yellow gold 116528 shipped on Oyster bracelets; the yellow gold 116518 and the white gold 116519 shipped on leather. The 116519 is the white-metal watch sold on a strap, with no factory Oyster bracelet option. The bracelet-mounted white-gold configuration is the [[Reference:116509|116509]], which remained in the catalogue into the 2023 transition.


The predecessor is the [[Reference:16519|16519]], the Zenith-based cal 4030 white gold Daytona on leather. The 2000 changeover brought the in-house movement, the 72-hour reserve and a redrawn dial-printing programme; the case profile, the engraved white gold bezel and the strap-and-deployant configuration carried over. The successor is the 116519LN, which arrived in March 2017 with a black monobloc Cerachrom bezel and an Oysterflex strap. That leaves the 116519 as the last engraved-white-gold-bezel Daytona Rolex delivered on leather.
The predecessor is the [[Reference:16519|16519]], the Zenith-based cal 4030 white gold Daytona on leather. The 2000 changeover brought the in-house movement, the 72-hour reserve and a redrawn dial-printing programme; the case profile, the engraved white gold bezel and the strap-and-deployant configuration carried over. The successor is the 116519LN, which arrived in March 2017 with a black monobloc Cerachrom bezel and an Oysterflex strap. That leaves the 116519 as the last engraved-white-gold-bezel Daytona Rolex delivered on leather.
Line 90: Line 90:
==Production outline==
==Production outline==


Rolex's own catalogue tracks the reference's life closely enough to bracket both ends. The earliest archived 116519 model page dates to December 2007, and pages for individual dial codes stay live through the 2008–2015 period. The last 116519 model page resolves in March 2016; after that every code redirects away, while sibling references at the same URL pattern keep resolving normally. The first 116519LN page appears in April 2017. The reference therefore left the catalogue somewhere between March 2016 and the Baselworld 2017 launch of its replacement.
Rolex's own catalogue tracks the reference's life closely enough to bracket both ends. The earliest archived 116519 model page dates to December 2007, and pages for individual dial codes stay live through the 2008–2015 period. The last 116519 model page resolves in March 2016; after that every code redirects away, while sibling references at the same URL pattern keep resolving normally. The first 116519LN page appears in April 2017. The archived pages bracket the catalogue change between March 2016 and the Baselworld 2017 launch of the replacement. That bracket does not establish the final case-production date.


Case serials follow the chronology shared across the cal 4130 family. Pre-2010 production uses the Rolex letter-prefix system; from mid-2010 onward case serials switch to the random eight-character alphanumeric format that has no public year mapping. See [[Reference:Serial-numbers]] for the full key.
Case serials follow the chronology shared across the cal 4130 family. Pre-2010 production uses the Rolex letter-prefix system; from mid-2010 onward case serials switch to the random eight-character alphanumeric format that has no public year mapping. See [[Reference:Serial-numbers]] for the full key.
Line 102: Line 102:
Cal 4130 is Rolex's first wholly in-house chronograph movement, and the 116519 is the white gold leather-strap entry into that transition. Thirty-seven years of bought-in chronograph bases ended with it: the Valjoux 72 family from 1963, the Zenith El Primero base from 1988.
Cal 4130 is Rolex's first wholly in-house chronograph movement, and the 116519 is the white gold leather-strap entry into that transition. Thirty-seven years of bought-in chronograph bases ended with it: the Valjoux 72 family from 1963, the Zenith El Primero base from 1988.


The vertical clutch starts the chronograph seconds hand cleanly, without the jump associated with lateral-clutch chronographs, and by most accounts the 4130-generation Daytona holds a tight daily rate even under frequent chronograph use. Rolex's spec wording for the 116519 reads "officially certified Swiss chronometer (COSC)" throughout the run; the tighter −2/+2 seconds-per-day Superlative Chronometer language arrives with the references that replaced it. For the full caliber lineage and the 4030-to-4130 architecture comparison, see [[Reference:Movements#cal-4130]].
The 4130 uses a vertical clutch and column wheel. Those are movement-construction facts; a particular watch's rate still depends on condition, service, and adjustment. Rolex's spec wording for the 116519 reads "officially certified Swiss chronometer (COSC)" throughout the run; the tighter −2/+2 seconds-per-day Superlative Chronometer language arrives with the references that replaced it. For the full caliber lineage and the 4030-to-4130 architecture comparison, see [[Reference:Movements#cal-4130]].


==Dial map==
==Dial map==
Line 196: Line 196:
==Strap, clasp, and packaging==
==Strap, clasp, and packaging==


Every documented original-delivery 116519 shipped on a strap with an 18k white gold folding clasp, which Rolex's own spec grid names as an Oysterlock safety clasp rather than a plain deployant. No factory Oyster bracelet was offered for the reference. Standard-dial watches came on alligator or crocodile in black, brown and tobacco; the Beach watches came on lizard in the dial colour.
The cited 116519 catalogues and auction lots show leather, lizard, or alligator straps with an 18k white-gold folding clasp. Rolex's spec grid calls the clasp an Oysterlock safety clasp. The reference was catalogued as the strap version; bracelet fitment belongs to the separate 116509. Standard-dial watches came on alligator or crocodile in black, brown and tobacco; the Beach watches came on lizard in the dial colour.


Clasp stamps recorded on documented examples include 16519-D, 16519 AB, DE, PJ, DT and 24650 MA. A clasp code dates the clasp, not the watch head, so a correct case can sit on a replaced strap or a later clasp and each component has to be verified on its own. Straps wear out; owners replaced them several times across a watch's life, and few 116519s survive with the original Rolex-stamped strap and an untampered clasp.
Clasp stamps recorded on documented examples include 16519-D, 16519 AB, DE, PJ, DT and 24650 MA. A clasp code dates the clasp, not the watch head, so a correct case can sit on a replaced strap or a later clasp and each component has to be verified on its own. Straps are replaceable components. A clasp or strap code dates that component, not the watch head, and cannot by itself establish original delivery.


Packaging is where the Beach watches separate themselves. Documented lots carry a colour-matched lizard presentation box, a matching wallet or card holder, and in some cases a spare strap in the same colour, all keyed to the dial. One oversized electric-blue "Daytona Beach" presentation box has come up at auction on its own, without a watch. For the wider Daytona bracelet and clasp chronology, see [[Reference:Bracelets]].
Packaging is where the Beach watches separate themselves. Documented lots carry a colour-matched lizard presentation box, a matching wallet or card holder, and in some cases a spare strap in the same colour, all keyed to the dial. One oversized electric-blue "Daytona Beach" presentation box has come up at auction on its own, without a watch. For the wider Daytona bracelet and clasp chronology, see [[Reference:Bracelets]].
Line 217: Line 217:
The launch date is genuinely disputed. Bonhams dates the series to 2000; Christie's has written that the four-colour offering came in 2002, and catalogues its own four-watch group as "circa 2000 to 2002". The end of the run is disputed in the other direction: Time+Tide gives 2001 to 2005, while Antiquorum has sold turquoise and chrysoprase examples with December 2005 sale dates and a chrysoprase made in 2006, and Christie's has catalogued a turquoise example circa 2006 with a 2006-dated guarantee.
The launch date is genuinely disputed. Bonhams dates the series to 2000; Christie's has written that the four-colour offering came in 2002, and catalogues its own four-watch group as "circa 2000 to 2002". The end of the run is disputed in the other direction: Time+Tide gives 2001 to 2005, while Antiquorum has sold turquoise and chrysoprase examples with December 2005 sale dates and a chrysoprase made in 2006, and Christie's has catalogued a turquoise example circa 2006 with a 2006-dated guarantee.


What the blue dial is actually made of has never settled either. Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams read it as turquoise hardstone, sometimes under the Kallait trade name; Erik Slaven, writing at Monochrome, describes it as blue lacquer. Christie's own cataloguing has at least once run the two readings together as "turquoise chrysoprase", which cannot be both. The green is more consistently read as chrysoprase or chalcedony, though "mint green mother-of-pearl" turns up in collector writing.
What the blue dial is actually made of has never settled either. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams catalogue the blue dial as turquoise hardstone, sometimes using the name Kallait. Erik Slaven at Monochrome describes a blue lacquer interpretation. Because the descriptions conflict, the material should be stated as the catalogue's attribution for each individual watch rather than as a settled universal identification. The green is more consistently read as chrysoprase or chalcedony, though "mint green mother-of-pearl" turns up in collector writing.


These are not rare watches in the way the prices imply. They come up regularly, and the four-colour set has been assembled and offered intact more than once. The Beach dial was also not strictly a 116519 property: Christie's has catalogued a baguette-diamond-bezel ref. 116589 as a "Daytona 'Beach' mother of pearl model", case K553636, circa 2001.
The Beach watches appear in multiple auction records, including complete four-watch groups. Those sales document the lots offered; they do not establish a population total or a general rarity ranking. The Beach dial was also not strictly a 116519 property: Christie's has catalogued a baguette-diamond-bezel ref. 116589 as a "Daytona 'Beach' mother of pearl model", case K553636, circa 2001.


===Hardstone and mineral dials===
===Hardstone and mineral dials===
Line 230: Line 230:
Sodalite is a separate branch and gets conflated with the Beach series constantly. It is a deep blue speckled stone, usually paired with Arabic numerals, and it sits on the standard 116519 with a plain alligator strap and none of the colour-matched lizard kit. Bonhams treats it as a distinct dial; Antiquorum has titled sodalite lots "Blue Daytona Beach", which is where the confusion starts.
Sodalite is a separate branch and gets conflated with the Beach series constantly. It is a deep blue speckled stone, usually paired with Arabic numerals, and it sits on the standard 116519 with a plain alligator strap and none of the colour-matched lizard kit. Bonhams treats it as a distinct dial; Antiquorum has titled sodalite lots "Blue Daytona Beach", which is where the confusion starts.


Grossular garnet in its rubellite variety produced a dark red hardstone dial with diamond hour markers, the strongest result of the mineral-dial group at auction. Meteorite belongs to the same family of hard-material dials, and it ran as a regular catalogue option throughout.
The cited grossular-garnet/rubellite example is a dark red hardstone dial with diamond hour markers. Meteorite is a separate catalogue material. The reviewed records do not establish that either material ran continuously throughout the reference's life.


===Commissioned and personalised dials===
===Commissioned and personalised dials===
Line 240: Line 240:
==Auction record==
==Auction record==


Beach dials dominate the reference's auction history, and complete sets outperform the sum of their parts. The best result on record is Christie's Hong Kong group of four, sold in November 2021 at more than four times what individual Beach watches were bringing at the time.
The auction table includes a complete four-watch Beach group and individual mineral and personalised examples. Results are lot-specific and should not be used as a general price ranking.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 313: Line 313:
The reference also carries the strongest single piece of provenance in the cal 4130 generation. Sotheby's sold Paul Newman's own 116519 in June 2023, a black-dial example with a Z-serial case, from the property of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Woodward gave it to him with the caseback engraved "DRIVE VERY SLOWLY JOANNE", the third in a run of caseback messages she put on his Daytonas: "Drive carefully me" on the [[Reference:6239|6239]] around 1968, "DRIVE SLOWLY JOANNE" on the Big Red [[Reference:6263|6263]] in 1983, and this one on a watch made nearly forty years after the first.
The reference also carries the strongest single piece of provenance in the cal 4130 generation. Sotheby's sold Paul Newman's own 116519 in June 2023, a black-dial example with a Z-serial case, from the property of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Woodward gave it to him with the caseback engraved "DRIVE VERY SLOWLY JOANNE", the third in a run of caseback messages she put on his Daytonas: "Drive carefully me" on the [[Reference:6239|6239]] around 1968, "DRIVE SLOWLY JOANNE" on the Big Red [[Reference:6263|6263]] in 1983, and this one on a watch made nearly forty years after the first.


Away from the stone dials and the provenance lots, standard white, white-and-black and slate 116519s trade quietly. Meteorite examples sit in a band of their own, and the plain layouts move more often through the dealer market than through the major houses, which keeps the public auction record thinner than the reference's production volume would suggest.
The public auction record is weighted toward Beach, mineral, gem-set, and personalised examples. The table is not a complete record of dealer or private transactions.


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


* [[Reference:116509|Daytona 116509]] — White gold on bracelet, stone dials
* [[Reference:116509|Daytona 116509]]: White gold on bracelet, stone dials.
* [[Reference:16519|Daytona 16519]] — White gold Zenith, 1989–2000
* [[Reference:16519|Daytona 16519]]: White gold Zenith, 1989–2000.
* [[Reference:116519LN|Daytona 116519LN]] — White gold Cerachrom on Oysterflex, 2017–2023
* [[Reference:116519LN|Daytona 116519LN]]: White gold Cerachrom on Oysterflex, 2017–2023.
* [[Reference:116518|Daytona 116518]] — Yellow gold on leather, 2000–2015
* [[Reference:116518|Daytona 116518]]: Yellow gold on leather, 2000–2015.
* [[Reference:116520|Daytona 116520]] — Steel, cal 4130, 2000–2016
* [[Reference:116520|Daytona 116520]] — Steel, cal 4130, 2000–2016
* [[Reference:116506|Daytona 116506]] — Platinum, 50th anniversary, 2013
* [[Reference:116506|Daytona 116506]]: Platinum, 50th anniversary, 2013.


See also the [[Reference:daytona|Daytona family index]], [[Reference:daytona-glossary|Daytona glossary]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet and clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].
See also the [[Reference:daytona|Daytona family index]], [[Reference:daytona-glossary|Daytona glossary]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet and clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].

Latest revision as of 15:16, 27 September 2026


Daytona › 116519

Reference 116519 in 18k white gold with the turquoise Beach dial and matching blue lizard strap, shown with box and Attestation de Chronometre Officiel. Bonhams, Hong Kong, 28 May 2024, lot 806.
Reference 116519 in 18k white gold with the turquoise Beach dial and matching blue lizard strap, shown with box and Attestation de Chronometre Officiel. Bonhams, Hong Kong, 28 May 2024, lot 806.

The 116519 is the 18k white gold, leather-strap Daytona of the in-house cal 4130 generation, the strap counterpart to the bracelet-mounted 116509 and the successor to the Zenith-era 16519. Christie's dates the launch to Baselworld 2000, where the reference arrived with the rest of the cal 4130 family. Rolex's own catalogue carried it into early 2016, and the ceramic-bezel 116519LN took its place at Baselworld in March 2017.

The reference is documented with four pastel “Beach” dial colours, plus sodalite, grossular garnet, meteorite, and gem-set layouts. Auction records sometimes include colour-matched lizard straps, wallets, or boxes with individual watches. Archived Rolex pages and auction catalogues together show a broad model-code range, but they do not provide a complete dial-by-code history.

Core facts

detail value
reference 116519
family Daytona (Cosmograph, automatic)
production c. 2000 to c. 2016
case 40mm, 18k white gold
crystal sapphire (flat)
bezel engraved 18k white gold tachymetre
crown Triplock, screw-down, white gold
water resistance 100m / 330ft
movement Rolex cal 4130
jewels 44
power reserve 72 hours
oscillator blue Parachrom hairspring
chronometer COSC certified
strap alligator, crocodile or lizard; 18k white gold folding Oysterlock clasp
siblings 116509 (white gold bracelet), 116520 (steel), 116518 (yellow gold leather), 116528 (yellow gold bracelet), 116523 (Rolesor)
predecessor 16519 (Zenith cal 4030, 1989–2000)
successor 116519LN (Cerachrom + Oysterflex, 2017)

Where it sits in the line

Rolex launched the cal 4130 Daytona across five configurations in 2000, split by case material and by bracelet-or-strap. The steel 116520, the Rolesor 116523 and the yellow gold 116528 shipped on Oyster bracelets; the yellow gold 116518 and the white gold 116519 shipped on leather. The 116519 is the white-metal watch sold on a strap, with no factory Oyster bracelet option. The bracelet-mounted white-gold configuration is the 116509, which remained in the catalogue into the 2023 transition.

The predecessor is the 16519, the Zenith-based cal 4030 white gold Daytona on leather. The 2000 changeover brought the in-house movement, the 72-hour reserve and a redrawn dial-printing programme; the case profile, the engraved white gold bezel and the strap-and-deployant configuration carried over. The successor is the 116519LN, which arrived in March 2017 with a black monobloc Cerachrom bezel and an Oysterflex strap. That leaves the 116519 as the last engraved-white-gold-bezel Daytona Rolex delivered on leather.

Production outline

Rolex's own catalogue tracks the reference's life closely enough to bracket both ends. The earliest archived 116519 model page dates to December 2007, and pages for individual dial codes stay live through the 2008–2015 period. The last 116519 model page resolves in March 2016; after that every code redirects away, while sibling references at the same URL pattern keep resolving normally. The first 116519LN page appears in April 2017. The archived pages bracket the catalogue change between March 2016 and the Baselworld 2017 launch of the replacement. That bracket does not establish the final case-production date.

Case serials follow the chronology shared across the cal 4130 family. Pre-2010 production uses the Rolex letter-prefix system; from mid-2010 onward case serials switch to the random eight-character alphanumeric format that has no public year mapping. See Reference:Serial-numbers for the full key.

One caution worth carrying into any archive search. The 116519 sits one digit away from the Zenith-era 16519 and five characters away from the 116519LN, and lots have been catalogued under the wrong one of the three in all directions. A pre-2000 cal 4030 watch described as a 116519 is a 16519; a post-2017 watch on a rubber strap described as a 116519 is a 116519LN. Read the movement and the bezel before trusting the reference number in a lot title.

Movement notes

Cal 4130 sits inside every 116519, the same movement that powers the 116509, 116520, 116518 and 116528. It runs on 44 jewels with a 72-hour reserve and COSC certification, switches through a column wheel, couples the chronograph with a vertical clutch, and carries a blue Parachrom hairspring — Rolex's own spec grid for the reference names the Parachrom hairspring outright, which auction cataloguing for the reference generally does not. Hour and minute counters share a single side of the movement, and the mainspring can be replaced without uncasing.

Cal 4130 is Rolex's first wholly in-house chronograph movement, and the 116519 is the white gold leather-strap entry into that transition. Thirty-seven years of bought-in chronograph bases ended with it: the Valjoux 72 family from 1963, the Zenith El Primero base from 1988.

The 4130 uses a vertical clutch and column wheel. Those are movement-construction facts; a particular watch's rate still depends on condition, service, and adjustment. Rolex's spec wording for the 116519 reads "officially certified Swiss chronometer (COSC)" throughout the run; the tighter −2/+2 seconds-per-day Superlative Chronometer language arrives with the references that replaced it. For the full caliber lineage and the 4030-to-4130 architecture comparison, see Reference:Movements#cal-4130.

Dial map

  • The slate dial, Rolex model code M116519-0160, with Arabic numerals and red chronograph accents on a brown alligator strap.
    The slate dial, Rolex model code M116519-0160, with Arabic numerals and red chronograph accents on a brown alligator strap.
  • Meteorite dial with Roman numerals and red chronograph hands, on brown alligator. Christie's Hong Kong, 2011.
    Meteorite dial with Roman numerals and red chronograph hands, on brown alligator. Christie's Hong Kong, 2011.
Dial Rolex model code Period Distinguishing features
White M116519-0048 full run Applied white gold markers, contrasting counter rings
White and black M116519-0151, -0169 full run White base with black snailed counters; tobacco-brown leather on the 0151
Slate M116519-0160, -0163 c. 2009 onward Slate base with Arabic numerals and red chronograph accents
Meteorite M116519-0195 c. 2011 onward Widmanstätten meteorite face, Roman or applied markers, red chronograph hands
"Gold Crystals" with eight diamonds not recorded c. 2010 Gold-crystal texture with eight diamond hour markers, catalogued on a brown strap
Beach: yellow mother-of-pearl not recorded c. 2000–2006 Warm champagne-toned nacre, Roman numerals, yellow lizard strap
Beach: pink mother-of-pearl not recorded c. 2000–2006 Pale pink nacre, Roman numerals, pink lizard strap
Beach: turquoise not recorded c. 2000–2006 Opaque turquoise hardstone, Roman numerals, blue lizard strap
Beach: green chrysoprase not recorded c. 2000–2006 Pale green chalcedony, Roman numerals, green lizard strap
Sodalite not recorded c. 2005 Deep blue speckled hardstone, most often with Arabic numerals
Grossular garnet rubellite not recorded late production Dark red hardstone with diamond hour markers
Tahitian mother-of-pearl not recorded mid-to-late production Dark iridescent nacre, applied or diamond markers
Factory diamond and baguette layouts not recorded full run Diamond hour markers on standard bases; baguette-set bezels on commissioned pieces

The standard end of the catalogue is quieter than the reference's reputation suggests. White, white-and-black and slate account for most surviving examples, and the meteorite entered the range around 2011 as part of a wider push of meteorite dials across the gold Daytonas. The slate dial is the odd one out among the plain layouts: Rolex's own render shows Arabic numerals and red chronograph hands where the rest of the line uses applied markers.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The case is 40mm in 18k white gold, sharing the cal 4130 family profile with integrated crown guards and a 700-series Triplock screw-down crown at 3 o'clock. Water resistance is 100m / 330ft. Rolex publishes no case thickness for the reference; the 12mm figure that circulates comes from auction cataloguing rather than the manufacturer. Several major-house lots have also catalogued the case at 39mm against Rolex's own 40mm, a measuring difference rather than a production variant.

The bezel is engraved 18k white gold with the tachymetre scale, unchanged across the run. Ceramic never reached the plain 116519; Cerachrom arrived on the white gold leather-strap Daytona only with the 116519LN. On a white gold case the engraved bezel reads much closer to steel than it does on the yellow gold 116518, which is part of why the reference has always traded quietly next to its gold siblings.

The crystal is flat sapphire with no Cyclops, and the running-seconds sub-dial sits at 6 o'clock. Screw-down chronograph pushers flank the crown and have to be unscrewed before the chronograph will start, the trade-off the whole cal 4130 generation makes for its water rating. Finishing is mixed, polished bezel and case flanks against brushed lug tops, and heavy refinishing is the routine secondary-market problem on white gold cases where the soft alloy takes polishing badly.

Strap, clasp, and packaging

The cited 116519 catalogues and auction lots show leather, lizard, or alligator straps with an 18k white-gold folding clasp. Rolex's spec grid calls the clasp an Oysterlock safety clasp. The reference was catalogued as the strap version; bracelet fitment belongs to the separate 116509. Standard-dial watches came on alligator or crocodile in black, brown and tobacco; the Beach watches came on lizard in the dial colour.

Clasp stamps recorded on documented examples include 16519-D, 16519 AB, DE, PJ, DT and 24650 MA. A clasp code dates the clasp, not the watch head, so a correct case can sit on a replaced strap or a later clasp and each component has to be verified on its own. Straps are replaceable components. A clasp or strap code dates that component, not the watch head, and cannot by itself establish original delivery.

Packaging is where the Beach watches separate themselves. Documented lots carry a colour-matched lizard presentation box, a matching wallet or card holder, and in some cases a spare strap in the same colour, all keyed to the dial. One oversized electric-blue "Daytona Beach" presentation box has come up at auction on its own, without a watch. For the wider Daytona bracelet and clasp chronology, see Reference:Bracelets.

Special branches

The Beach dials

  • All four Beach dials together: yellow and pink mother-of-pearl, green chrysoprase and turquoise, each on its matching lizard strap. Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2021, lot 2205.
    All four Beach dials together: yellow and pink mother-of-pearl, green chrysoprase and turquoise, each on its matching lizard strap. Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2021, lot 2205.
  • Turquoise Kallait dial on its matching blue lizard strap. Bonhams, Hong Kong, 28 May 2024, lot 806.
    Turquoise Kallait dial on its matching blue lizard strap. Bonhams, Hong Kong, 28 May 2024, lot 806.
  • Pink mother-of-pearl on pink lizard, the dial Sotheby's records under the name Candy Rose.
    Pink mother-of-pearl on pink lizard, the dial Sotheby's records under the name Candy Rose.
  • Yellow mother-of-pearl with its colour-matched lizard box, wallet and chronometer certificate.
    Yellow mother-of-pearl with its colour-matched lizard box, wallet and chronometer certificate.
  • Green chrysoprase with the green lizard presentation box and a spare strap in the same skin. Bonhams, 14 December 2022, lot 88.
    Green chrysoprase with the green lizard presentation box and a spare strap in the same skin. Bonhams, 14 December 2022, lot 88.

Four colours make up the Beach series: yellow, pink, turquoise and green. Sotheby's presents Rolex's own names for them as Champagne Nacre and Candy Rose for the two mother-of-pearl dials, Kallait for the turquoise hardstone, and chalcedony for the green, better known to collectors as chrysoprase. Each shipped with a lizard strap and matching packaging in the dial colour, and all four carry Roman numerals.

The launch date is genuinely disputed. Bonhams dates the series to 2000; Christie's has written that the four-colour offering came in 2002, and catalogues its own four-watch group as "circa 2000 to 2002". The end of the run is disputed in the other direction: Time+Tide gives 2001 to 2005, while Antiquorum has sold turquoise and chrysoprase examples with December 2005 sale dates and a chrysoprase made in 2006, and Christie's has catalogued a turquoise example circa 2006 with a 2006-dated guarantee.

What the blue dial is actually made of has never settled either. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams catalogue the blue dial as turquoise hardstone, sometimes using the name Kallait. Erik Slaven at Monochrome describes a blue lacquer interpretation. Because the descriptions conflict, the material should be stated as the catalogue's attribution for each individual watch rather than as a settled universal identification. The green is more consistently read as chrysoprase or chalcedony, though "mint green mother-of-pearl" turns up in collector writing.

The Beach watches appear in multiple auction records, including complete four-watch groups. Those sales document the lots offered; they do not establish a population total or a general rarity ranking. The Beach dial was also not strictly a 116519 property: Christie's has catalogued a baguette-diamond-bezel ref. 116589 as a "Daytona 'Beach' mother of pearl model", case K553636, circa 2001.

Hardstone and mineral dials

  • Blue sodalite with Arabic numerals, unworn with box and papers. Christie's Geneva, 2017.
    Blue sodalite with Arabic numerals, unworn with box and papers. Christie's Geneva, 2017.
  • Grossular garnet rubellite with diamond hour markers. Christie's Hong Kong, 10 March 2023, lot 2.
    Grossular garnet rubellite with diamond hour markers. Christie's Hong Kong, 10 March 2023, lot 2.

Sodalite is a separate branch and gets conflated with the Beach series constantly. It is a deep blue speckled stone, usually paired with Arabic numerals, and it sits on the standard 116519 with a plain alligator strap and none of the colour-matched lizard kit. Bonhams treats it as a distinct dial; Antiquorum has titled sodalite lots "Blue Daytona Beach", which is where the confusion starts.

The cited grossular-garnet/rubellite example is a dark red hardstone dial with diamond hour markers. Meteorite is a separate catalogue material. The reviewed records do not establish that either material ran continuously throughout the reference's life.

Commissioned and personalised dials

Two documented commissions sit outside the catalogue. Phillips sold a "Netherlands Edition" 116519 from a run of thirty made for the Dutch squad after the 2010 World Cup final, arranged through Giovanni van Bronckhorst, split fifteen on leather as 116519 and fifteen on bracelet as 116509, each caseback engraved with the player's name and shirt number. Christie's sold a white-dial 116519 personalised with the Italian flag by the retailer F.lli Pisa for Inter Milan. Antiquorum has offered a new-old-stock example with a U.A.E. logo porcelain dial and matching engraved caseback.

Double-signed dials are thin ground on the 116519. By the 2000s the retailer dial programmes that produced the great Zenith-era and manual-wind double signatures had largely ended, and any six-digit example needs original sale documentation or major-house cataloguing before it can be taken seriously.

Auction record

The auction table includes a complete four-watch Beach group and individual mineral and personalised examples. Results are lot-specific and should not be used as a general price ranking.

Sale Date Lot Watch Result
Christie's, Hong Kong 27 Nov 2021 2205 Group of four Beach dials, complete colour set HKD 2,250,000
Christie's, Hong Kong 10 Mar 2023 2 Grossular garnet rubellite, diamond-set HKD 604,800
Antiquorum, Hong Kong 25 Nov 2022 200 Green chrysoprase Beach HKD 587,500
Christie's, Hong Kong 27 Oct 2024 2303 Turquoise Beach, P455421, with lizard box and holder HKD 567,000
Bonhams, Hong Kong 28 May 2024 806 Turquoise Beach, K853267 HKD 512,000
Phillips, New York 8 Jun 2024 47 "Netherlands Edition", caseback engraved "Boschker 22" USD 266,700
Phillips, Geneva 7 May 2022 220 Sodalite with Arabic numerals, D343310, circa 2005 CHF 126,000
Antiquorum, Geneva 11 May 2024 114 Pink mother-of-pearl Beach, P185092, sold December 2000 CHF 112,500
Antiquorum, Monaco 17 Jul 2018 144 Baguette diamonds, "Blue Jeans", property of Ellen DeGeneres EUR 38,640
Christie's, Milan 20 Jan 2021 76 White dial with Italian flag, F.lli Pisa for Inter Milan, Z235236 EUR 32,500

The reference also carries the strongest single piece of provenance in the cal 4130 generation. Sotheby's sold Paul Newman's own 116519 in June 2023, a black-dial example with a Z-serial case, from the property of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Woodward gave it to him with the caseback engraved "DRIVE VERY SLOWLY JOANNE", the third in a run of caseback messages she put on his Daytonas: "Drive carefully me" on the 6239 around 1968, "DRIVE SLOWLY JOANNE" on the Big Red 6263 in 1983, and this one on a watch made nearly forty years after the first.

The public auction record is weighted toward Beach, mineral, gem-set, and personalised examples. The table is not a complete record of dealer or private transactions.

Related references

See also the Daytona family index, Daytona glossary, movement reference, bracelet and clasp guide, and serial numbers by year.

Sources

Retrieved from "https://rolexopedia.net/index.php?title=Reference:116519&oldid=10840"