Rolex le Mans Daytona 126529ln

The Rolex company has released anniversary watches outside the usual structure of the exhibition. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Le Mans, the company introduced a special Daytona model. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, an annual endurance car race, takes place in France. The new white gold model perpetuates the legendary race with a black and white dial, a special black ceramic tachymeter scale with a red “100” mark and a mechanism tuned to time the famous endurance race.

The new Le Mans Daytona 126529LN watch is 40 mm in diameter and comes with an Oyster bracelet. The novelty is equipped with a new 4132 caliber. Its special feature is the chronograph’s long operating cycle – 24 hours for Le Mans instead of 12 for the standard model.

Another important element is the use of an inverted dial in the style of Paul Newman. This means that the black dial with white auxiliary dials is very similar to a direct reference to the vintage Daytona 6263. Rolex even calls it that in its new model’s press release: “The graphic design of the dial is inspired by a Rolex watch face from the past.”

Given Rolex’s close and long-standing ties to both endurance racing in general and their main event, Le Mans, it’s no surprise that they’ve unveiled a new chronograph to mark the 100th anniversary of the race. Paul Newman wasn’t just a fan of Daytona; he was also an avid endurance racer and competed in the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans (where he raced with Dick Barbour’s team and they finished first in class and second overall).

This is an impressive look at the modern Daytona, which is not only a worthy allusion to the history of Le Mans, but also to the history of Rolex in the cultural context in which the Daytona exists as a modern sports chronograph.

WATCH

Automatic movement, Caliber 4132. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, 24-hour chronograph. Power reserve 72 hours. Frequency 28,800 half-vibrations per hour. Stones: 47. Certified chronometer. Paramagnetic blue Parachrom spiral, high-performance Paraflex shock absorbers.

HOUSING

Diameter 40 mm, 18k white gold. Water resistance of 100 meters

DIAL

Black with white additional dials. Luminescent labels

THE BRACELET

Oyster white gold 18k

REFERENCE

126529LN

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