A timepiece that no one saw coming quickly became the hottest horological object on the planet when it debuted on a random summer’s day in June of 2023. Made in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it mixed features from vintage references with all the tech—and white gold—of a modern piece. In short, collectors went absolutely nuts for it, with numbers on the secondary market quickly climbing to several multiples of its $51,400 price tag. And when it was quietly discontinued after roughly only 10 months? Pfffft. Suddenly, it seemed like we might have a 21st-century equivalent of the “Paul Newman” on our hands. (Rolex, for its part, quietly—and immediately—replaced the white-gold original with an equally desirable yellow-gold version.)
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Of course, if your last name is “DiCaprio” and you’re a Rolex Testimonee—the Crown’s term for an ambassador—you have access to such watches. But it’s not just the Crown’s approved partners that quickly moved to snap up the the “Le Mans” Daytona. In both its white and yellow-gold versions, the new Daytona landed on the wrists of Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Ed Sheeran, Michael Jordan, and Roger Federer. Standing for a photocall at the debut of his latest Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film, One Battle After Another, DiCaprio once again strapped on the white-gold Daytona—a watch ostensibly designed for racing that looks just as much at home when worn casually with a suit and no tie.
Housed in a 40-mm white gold Oyster case with screw-down pushers, the “Le Mans” Daytona boasts several noteworthy features. Let’s start our tour with the bezel, which features a tachymeter scale with the “100” indication done up in red, a nod to both Le Man’s centennial as well as to vintage Daytonas and their red dial text. This color is echoed on the dial with red “Daytona” text, but then things get decidedly more vintage-inspired. If you look closely at the chronograph registers, you’ll realize the typography echoes that of “exotic” references referred to as “Paul Newman” Daytona, with the quirky, idiosyncratic Arabic and square-shaped indices seen on that famed actor’s ref. 6239. Produced by Singer, these dials were fitted to several different hand-wound Daytonas—many of which are said to have languished on shelves before they became popular in the 1980s and ‘90s.
The “reverse panda” color scheme—white totalizers against a black background—is yet another callout to vintage references. But besides small aesthetic touches, Rolex went the extra mile and gave this watch a brand-new, modified movement, the cal. 4132. Why debut a modified engine so soon after the debut of 2023’s crop of new references at Watches and Wonders? Look at the hour counter on the dial and you’ll realize it measures not the typical 12 hours, but 24 in honor of the day-long race. Pretty neat, eh?
Prices on the secondary market for this ultra-rare piece are currently nearly a quarter-million bucks. But on DiCaprio’s wrist, it looks like the full million.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Barbie”
Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed up to The Tonight Show with a strong wrist game: Poking out from beneath his cuff was the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Barbie,” an off-catalog piece that’s only allocated to the Crown’s most important clients. (Think Lionel Messi, Mark Wahlberg, etc. Clearly, Gilgeous-Alexander’s in good company.) With its 18K yellow gold, diamond-set case; pink sapphire-set bezel; and bright pink dial with pink sapphire indices, this piece is said to exist in only a handful of examples—meaning its (theoretical) price would be several times that of the aforementioned “Le Mans” Daytona.
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Miles Teller’s IWC Portugieser Automatic 40
Appearing at the premiere of his new A24 film Eternity, Miles Teller rocked the IWC Portugieser Automatic 40, a modern take on a timepiece that the Schaffhausen-based brand debuted in the 1930s—supposedly at the request of two Portuguese businessmen who desired a larger wristwatch than what was then fashionable. Housed in a 40-mm stainless steel case without crown guards and with a thin, smooth bezel, it takes clear inspiration from pocket watches. This is even more evident when considering the dial, which is designed with a railroad minute track, a subsidiary seconds register above 6 o’clock, and a thin feuille handset and matching Arabic indices. The Portugieser has a classic, dressy appeal that transcends any particular era.
Mathew Tsang
Ryan Reynolds’ Rolex Oyster Perpetual “Celebration” Dial
At TIFF, Ryan Reynolds wore another discontinued and highly coveted Rolex: the Oyster Perpetual “Celebration” Dial. Available at launch in several sizes, the “Celebration” dial was unusual for not only its bright colors, but its mix of of them: If you consider the sunny crop OPs that dropped beginning in 2020, you’ll realize that Rolex brought all those colors together in order to form the dial of this cheery watch. These days, when you can track one down on the secondary market, they trade for a pretty penny: 41-mm versions are well over $20K.
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Daniel Craig’s Omega Seamaster 120
For the vintage heads out there, there was no horological news more relevant this week than Daniel Craig appearing at the TIFF premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery in a vintage, blue-dialed Omega Seamaster 120. Unlike the classic Seamaster 300, this version is housed in a chunky C-shaped case without crown guards that comes paired to an Oyster-like steel bracelet. The fully hashed bezel insert and “gladiator” handset are clearly reminiscent of mil-spec Seamaster 300s; however, the abundant tritium lume speaks to the late ‘60s/early ‘70s era in which it was made. Could Omega be about to reissue this oft-forgotten model? We wouldn’t put it past them…
