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Rolex 6264 Daytona

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Daytona › 6264

Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6264
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6264

The 6264 is a 1970–72 manual-wind Cosmograph with pump pushers and a black acrylic tachymeter bezel. It is the acrylic-bezel sibling of the metal-bezel 6262 and the pump-pusher counterpart to the screw-pusher 6263. The references overlap during the transition to the later screw-pusher pair.


Core facts

Field Value
Reference 6264
Family Daytona (manual-wind)
Production 1970–1972
Case 36mm steel; 14k and 18k yellow gold examples documented
Pushers pump (unthreaded) — defining feature versus the screw-pusher 6263
Bezel black acrylic insert with tachymetric scale (vs engraved-metal 6262)
Crystal acrylic
Crown Twinlock screw-down
Movement Rolex caliber 727 (Valjoux 72 base)
Beat rate 21,600 vph
Bracelet refs 7205 (early) -> 7835 (transitional and standard)
End links 271 (19mm)
Clasp folded Oyster, quarterly date code (e.g. “II.71” reads second quarter 1971)

Where it sits in the line

The 6264 sits in the four-reference 1970–72 Daytona transition. Two pusher styles ran in parallel with two bezel styles, and Rolex assigned a separate reference number to each combination. The pump-pusher pair carried the engraved metal tachymetric bezel on the 6262 and the black acrylic insert on the 6264. The screw-pusher pair, which replaced both by 1972, carried the same two bezel choices: metal on the 6265 and acrylic on the 6263. The 6264 is the pump-pusher analogue of the 6263, with the same case, same movement, and same bezel; only the pushers differ.

The 6264 also closes the pump-pusher chapter of the Daytona line. The pump style had run continuously from the 6239 in 1963, with only the 6240 (1965) carrying screw-down pushers in the intervening years. By the time 6263 / 6265 production stabilised in 1972, screw-pushers had become the standard, and the 6264 and 6262 are the last manual-wind Daytonas to leave the factory with the unthreaded pump style.

Production outline

Production is generally dated 1970–72. The sources do not provide a complete factory cutover record, so the closing year should remain approximate.

No confirmed factory production total is published for the 6264. The short run is documented in specialist and auction sources, but the page does not infer a rank or a population from duration alone.

Serial-range placement follows the pre-letter Rolex chart for the period. Documented 6264 examples fall roughly between 2.4M and 3.3M; this is an observed range, not a complete production register. The reference uses the same case stamping conventions as the rest of the manual-wind Daytona run: reference number between the upper lugs, serial between the lower lugs, both visible only with the bracelet off.

Movement notes

The 6264 carries Rolex caliber 727 throughout production. The 727 is the higher-frequency revision of the Valjoux 72 base used across all four 1970–72 references: 21,600 vph (3 Hz) versus the 18,000 vph cal 722 / 722-1 that ran in the earlier 6239 and 6241. Architecture is otherwise unchanged. Lateral-clutch chronograph coupling, column wheel, tri-compax sub-dial layout, 17 jewels, manual wind. No quickset, no hack, no chronometer certification. The same caliber 727 powered the 6262 from 1970, the 6263 from 1969 through 1988, and the 6265 alongside it. See Reference:Movements#cal-727.

The 727 runs at 21,600 vph, compared with 18,000 vph for the earlier 722 family. Some US-bound examples carry a “ROW” import code on the balance bridge; that marking is an observed market detail, not a requirement for every 6264.

Rolex caliber 727 in a 6264 case, viewed with the caseback off
Caliber 727, 17 jewels, lateral-clutch column-wheel chronograph. Bonhams lot 176.

Dial map

Serial / year / dial / lume / bracelet

Serial range Year Dial Lume Bracelet End links Notes
2.4M-2.6M (~1970) 1970 standard or exotic Cosmograph tritium 7205 (early), 7835 (transitional) 271 Bracelet transition; individual fitment needs checking.
2.6M-3.0M (~1971) 1971 standard or exotic Cosmograph tritium 7835 271 Folded bracelet appears in documented examples.
3.0M-3.3M (~1972) 1972 standard or exotic Cosmograph tritium 7835 271 Late examples overlap the 6263/6265 transition.

The 6264 spans the same dial chronology as the 6262, 6263, and 6265 in their early phases: single-mark production, with both the standard Cosmograph dial and the Paul Newman exotic offered against the same case-and-bezel platform. The exotic took the Newman name from the actor’s own 6239 long after the 6264 left production. The reference’s short run means there is no Sigma era on 6264 — Sigma dials enter the manual-wind line around 1972, after 6264 production has effectively closed — and no Big Red, the red DAYTONA block that appears around 1976 on the long-running 6263. Variant count stays narrow as a result.

Documented standard dials include black and white panda layouts. They use the manual-wind tri-compax arrangement with three sub-dials and luminous markers; the exact text and hand details vary by dial and period. The available auction record is too small to establish a colour frequency.

Paul Newman dials are documented on the 6264. Their square markers, cross-hairs, contrasting sub-dials, and Singer markings should be checked against the individual dial; the short reference run means fewer public records than for the 6263, but it does not provide a complete survival count.

Some older secondary descriptions group the 6264 with the metal-bezel 6262 and 6265. Current auction catalogues and specialist references identify the 6264 as the pump-pusher counterpart to the acrylic-bezel 6263, with a black acrylic insert rather than an engraved metal bezel.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The 6264 case is about 36mm, in stainless steel or yellow gold. Published examples include 14k cases for the North American market and 18k examples for export. A documented 14k example, case 2802729, sold at Antiquorum New York in September 2014 for USD 81,250; the lot had a champagne-and-black dial, applied yellow-gold indexes, and caliber 727.

14K yellow gold Rolex 6264, champagne and black dial, on a leather strap
The 14K gold 6264, case No.2802729. Antiquorum New York, September 2014, sold USD 81,250.

The pump pushers are the watch’s defining feature against the contemporary 6263, which carries the same case and bezel but adds threaded screw-down pusher tubes. Pump pushers are unthreaded, sit slightly proud of the case, and actuate without unscrewing. Published sources give different water-resistance figures for early manual-wind Daytonas, including 50m and 100m. The page should not use one figure as a universal 6264 specification; the screw-down pushers were introduced to improve sealing and prevent accidental actuation. The Twinlock screw-down crown is the same on both. Neither watch was meant for chronograph use underwater; the screw-pusher revision answered accidental actuation more than depth rating.

The bezel insert is black acrylic with a white tachymeter graduation, generally calibrated to 200 units per hour. The 6262 differs by using an engraved metal bezel; the case and caliber relationship is otherwise close. The same acrylic-bezel concept continued on the 6263, although individual bezels can be replaced.

Some case records are dual-stamped with neighboring references. That affects the identification of an individual case, but it does not overturn the reference-level bezel distinction documented by auction catalogues. Two Bonhams lots — an 18K gold "Khanjar" Sultanate of Oman dial example sold in London for £124,860 in June 2024, and a steel example sold for £38,400 in June 2025 — are both catalogued as "Ref: 6263 between the lugs, 6264 inside case back." Both carry screw-down pushers, meaning both are functionally 6263s despite the 6264 caseback stamp. A third lot, catalogued directly as "Ref:6262/6264" and sold in London for £84,100 in 2014, shows the same practice on the pump-pusher side (Reference:6262). A single case-stamp reading is not sufficient on its own to settle which reference a given watch belongs to across this cluster.

Dual-stamped Rolex caseback reading 6262 inside a bracelet-fitted case
The dual-stamped case from the 2014 Bonhams £84,100 lot — caseback reads 6262, case body between the lugs reads 6264.

Crystal is acrylic, a flat-domed Twinlock-compatible plexi consistent with the era and the rest of the manual-wind Daytona group. The crown is a Twinlock screw-down, period-standard for water-resistant Oyster sport watches before Triplock entered the line on the deeper-spec divers.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The 6264 appears in the rivet-to-folded bracelet transition on the 19mm Daytona case. Published examples show 7205 rivet and 7835 folded-link bracelets, both with 271 end links. A bracelet is a fitment observation; it does not prove original delivery.

Some secondary tables print “771” in place of “271.” The cited bracelet records use 271 for the 19mm fitment, but the stamp should still be read from the individual bracelet.

A clasp's stamped date records only when that bracelet was made; the watch head it is currently paired with can carry a different age entirely. The pre-1976 stamping convention used on 6264 clasps is the roman quarter / two-digit year format inside the clasp blade. “II.71” reads second quarter 1971; “IV.72” reads fourth quarter 1972. Any 6264 with a clasp date later than 1972 carries either a service replacement bracelet or has had a later bracelet fitted. For the date-code key and the broader Rolex bracelet timeline, see Reference:Bracelets.

Special branches

The documented 6264 variants in this source set are dial-based. No separate military or royal-commission branch is established here.

The Paul Newman 6264 is a documented exotic-dial branch. Examples include panda and tri-color layouts; no factory-limited run or complete survival count is established. The dial should be authenticated independently of the case reference.

Retailer-signed examples are documented for Tiffany, Beyer, Cartier, Asprey, Serpico y Laino, and Linz Brothers. The Linz-signed Paul Newman 6264 sold at Antiquorum Geneva in November 2017 for CHF 275,000. Antiquorum described the signature as a retailer addition; the available records do not establish a complete retailer census for the reference.

Rolex 6264 Paul Newman dial signed Linz, on an Oyster bracelet
The Linz Brothers-signed Paul Newman 6264. Antiquorum Geneva, November 2017, sold CHF 275,000.
Close-up of the Linz retailer signature below Rolex Cosmograph on the exotic dial
Dial detail — the "Linz" retailer signature, applied locally by the Dallas dealership rather than at Rolex Switzerland.

Historical market and auction record

The 6264 has not produced the headline single-lot results that the 6263 has accumulated across Christie’s “Daytona Lesson One” (Geneva, 2013) and Phillips’ “Daytona Ultimatum” (Geneva, 2018). Phillips’ Daytona Ultimatum did include the 6264 within its catalogued field, and the broader Phillips manual-wind round-up at the Geneva Watch Auction XX in November 2024 covered 6264 examples in its fourteen-lot set, but no 6264-specific lot has reached the seven- or eight-figure tier of the named 6263 special branches. A specific, well-documented 6264 result exists at the high end regardless: the Linz Brothers retailer-signed Paul Newman (Antiquorum Geneva, November 2017) sold for CHF 275,000.

The 6264 is identified by the combination of pump pushers, the black acrylic bezel, and caliber 727. Sigma and Big Red dial classifications belong to later production and should not be assumed on a 6264 without a specific source. Case, dial, hands, pushers, and bezel should agree with the 1970–72 period. A neighboring reference stamped on a case requires an individual case and movement review; screw-down pushers are a modification of the pump-pusher specification.

The Linz Brothers-signed example sold for CHF 275,000, while a non-retailer-signed Paul Newman 6264 sold at Antiquorum Monaco in 2018 for EUR 161,000. These are individual auction results. The Monaco catalogue also gives a working estimate of about 2,000 watches and notes neighboring caseback stamps; neither point is a confirmed factory total.


Related references

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

Sources

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