Indeed! Until sometime in the 90's (I think) the Daytonas actually had Zenith El Primero movements inside them. Rolex took them "in-house" at that point. The Old ones are collectors items.
Younger son bought me this boxed 2001 Monaco around four years ago from a dealer in London - at the time I wanted one, but now I think it looks a bit dated.
Sorry to say I don’t agree with you there, far from being dated I’d say it’s within the top five most timeless designs (no pun intended).
I had a pre-ceramic Daytona (steel with white dial) and I found it a bit delicate for when I’m ham fistedly spannering my bikes, so I sold it. I ussd to buy and sell watches when the pound was strong against the dollar in the noughties and it meant I could import stuff from the States and still make a 25% profit even after import duty and PayPal fees. I started out with simple easy to shift models like modern steel Rolexes and Omegas but moved into vintage chronographs until I got landed with lemons twice in quick succession and went back to what I was more comfortable with. I ended up with a bit of a collection but sold most of them when I had some hard times about 8 years ago. Now I just have: Rolex Submariner. 2010, I think. Steel. The last facelift model with the engraved rehaut, before they went up in size and had a ceramic bezel. Rolex Datejust. 2001. Steel with salmon pink dial, Roman numerals and “engine turned” bezel. Girard Perregaux doctor’s watch/regulateur in steel with blue steel hands. Circa 1950. Rare as rocking horse you-know-what as back in those days some watch makers still operated not by mass producing a particular model, but by customers speccing a movement, face style and case to order. Not worth much now as it has a bitsa movement due to unavailability of spares. Omega Speedmaster Professional “Moon Watch”, circa 2015. Supposedly a limited edition but they do too many limited editions for it to mean anything. I used to have a “pre-Moon” Moon watch but sold it. I dread to think what it is worth now. Omega Speedmaster Automatic “Reduced”. I gave this to my son for his 18th two years ago. Le Coultre (ie: pre-merger with Jaeger) “Futurematic”, 1950s crownless watch in gold with twisted teardrop lugs. The pic below is a stock photo from the web as all the watches save for the Sub (which I never take off) are in the safe at work.
