Rolex Daytona 6262

The Rolex 6262 is one of the earliest references in Rolex’s Daytona range. It was part of the first series of Daytonas, a series that ran from 1963 to 1987. These references all had manual wind movements, in contrast with the automatic movements of the watches that came after 1987. These first series Daytonas are highly valued on the used market, and this is especially true for the 6262, largely because it is a very rare reference.

The first seven Daytona references can be divided into three pairs and one outlier. The first group comprises the 6239 and 6241, then there’s the 6262 and 6264, and finally the 6265 and 6263. Within each group, the former has a metallic bezel and the latter a metallic bezel with black acrylic insert. Apart from the bezel, the references within each group are almost identical. In addition to these three pairs you have the 6240, which is kind of a prototype version of the 6263.

The 6262 and 6264 are both transitional references, with characteristics both of the watches preceding them and also of those following them. They both had very short production runs. The 6262 was produced for only one year, between 1970 and 1971, whilst production of the 6264 carried on into 1972.

Due to the unpopularity of the Daytona at that time, this reference had a short production run. Only 9000 stainless steel 6262s were produced, and gold examples are even rarer. It’s estimated that only 30 18kt gold 6262s were ever produced, making the gold 6262 perhaps the rarest ever Daytona and maybe even the rarest ever Rolex.

If you put aside the bezel, these are almost the same watch. They are both 37mm watches with pump pushers, tritium lume, and a tachymeter scale that goes from 50 to 200 units per hour. The 6262 has a domed plexiglass crystal with the tradename ‘Tropic 21’.

This particular crystal appears on all of the first seven references mentioned above; at least on examples of these references produced before 1980. After this year, there was a switch to standard plexiglass on some.

The watch also has a Twinlock 600 crown, the same crown found on all earlier references and on the 6264. It was only with the appearance of the 6263 and 6265 that the updated Twinlock 700 crown was introduced. Lastly, both the 6262 and 6264 have Valjoux 727 movements, the most advanced of all of the Valjoux based movements used in the Daytona range. There were some later versions of these movements (the 728, 729 and 730) but none of these appeared on any Daytonas.

The 6262 and 6264 came with the same dial configurations: either standard or exotic dials. The standard dials were either white with black registers, or alternatively black with white registers. The exotic dials (also called Paul Newman dials) were usually three-colour dials, but two-colour dial 6262s can also be found.