Born to Face

Born to Face

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<Rolex>

Fifty years after its creation, the Cosmograph Daytona continues to evolve and achieve unparalleled status in the realm of sports chronographs

Cosmograph Daytona Platinum

Created by Rolex in 1963, Daytona has established an extraordinary track record in the world of motor racing thanks to its reliability and performance. Known simply as the ‘Daytona’, the watch has risen to the rank of an icon as the most famous and most coveted chronograph in the world. Daytona is an evocative name which, before it became inextricably linked to one of the most emblematic Rolex models, had forged its own legend; one built on land speed records, ultra-powerful engines, races on hardpacked sand and daring feats of driving.

It all began on the beach in Daytona, Florida. This broad band of hard-packed sand—a straight flat stretch more than 35kms long—became in the early 20th century one of the legendary sites in the conquest of speed and in motor racing. Between 1904 and 1935, the world land speed record was set there 14 times. With its sand tamped down by the Atlantic Ocean, this natural raceway was exceptional. It attracted automobile pioneers from the four corners of the United States and from Europe who came to compete at the wheel of the most powerful cars of their times.

Motor sport exploits that resounded around the globe swiftly secured the title ‘world capital of speed’ for Daytona. In March 1935 the unbridled race to be the fastest culminated in a world record set by British driver Sir Malcolm Campbell in his famous speedster Bluebird—445km/h (276mph)—just a few months before he broke the 300mph barrier on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. And the man who was to go down in history as the king of speed had been wearing a Rolex Oyster since the early 1930s.

In the late 1950s, the Swiss watchmaker became a partner of the Daytona International Speedway in Florida. In 1963, the circuit gave its name to the legendary chronograph Rolex created for racing drivers, the Cosmograph Daytona. Since the late 1960s, Rolex has counted motor racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart, one of the most celebrated Formula 1 drivers of the last 40 years, among its family of prominent testimonees. Sir Jackie won three Formula One World Championships (1969, 1971 and 1973) and 27 Grand Prix races. He is also widely recognised for his commitment to F1 driver safety during the 1970s.

“Each driver wants to win ‘his’ Rolex Daytona,” says Danish racing driver Tom Kristensen who holds a record number of successes at Le Mans

The tradition of epic motor racing in Daytona persisted on the beach until the late 1950s. It has continued on the Daytona International Speedway, a veritable temple of speed built in 1959 as one of the first Super Speedways in the world. Every year, this gigantic amphitheatre of modern times, 4kms in circumference, with 31-degree banked turns which allow breathtaking acceleration, hosts automobile races as thrilling and prestigious as the Daytona 500 and the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The most experienced racing drivers rate the latter, 24-hour endurance race—the American equivalent of the 24 Hours of Le Mans—as one of the most difficult in the world. Daytona International Speedway inherited one of the most formidable histories of speed and motor racing, and gave its name to the chronograph Rolex dedicated in 1963 to racing drivers and motor sport enthusiasts: the Cosmograph Daytona.