Description
Daytona is the name of a Florida town that began attracting motorsports enthusiasts early in the last century for its wide beach of smooth, dense sand, ideal for land speed record attempts. In 1936, the Daytona Beach Road Course hosted its first stock car race, which was then replaced in 1958 when the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) created Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR. Due to its elevated design, Daytona International Speedway allowed for higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars.
Daytona has become the speed capital of the world.
From the 1930s onwards, Rolex began to build a strong reputation as a maker of versatile sports watches thanks to the Oyster "sealed against the elements" case and the famous testimonials of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who can be considered the brand's first ambassador. In these years, Rolex produced its first chronograph wristwatch with a single button on the side to start, stop and reset the separate hands. For these chronograph models, Rolex adopted movements from Valjoux. But it was in 1955 that Rolex introduced the manual chronograph in the case of the oyster model, which can be considered the predecessor of the Daytona. The Rolex Oyster Chronograph reference 6234 was equipped with a tachymeter scale on the outer ring and a distance scale on the inner ring. From 1955 to 1961, Rolex produced about 2,300 pieces in stainless steel and less than 150 pieces in 14k or 18k gold in various black and white dials. The three sub-dials (small seconds at 9 o'clock, 30 minutes and 12 o'clock at 3 and 6 o'clock respectively) had different sizes in different versions.