Rolex Unveils New Steel Daytona With a Black Ceramic Bezel

Every year on the eve of Baselworld, Rolex fans around the world wonder if it’s the year Rolex reveals new upgrades to the Cosmograph Daytona. In 2013, the year of the 50th anniversary of the beloved chronograph, Rolex came out with the Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph, a platinum blue-dialed reference with a brown ceramic bezel but no major updates.

This year, when Rolex teased a short video clip on social media with what looked a lot like the luminous markings of today’s Daytona, everyone held their breath.

The wait is now over for the new Rolex Daytona. Unveiled at Baselworld, the new additions to the Daytona family are in steel, equipped with a black ceramic bezel and comes in both a white and a black dial. The sub-dials on the white dial version are ringed in black, while the black dial version has sub-dials ringed in grey.

?This newest evolution pays tribute to the 1965 model of the Daytona (reference 6240), that was fitted with a black Plexiglas bezel insert. In line with previous Daytona models, the watch remains at 40 mm, and houses the calibre 4130.

The new black ceramic bezel is a welcome addition, replacing the engraved metal bezel of the older Daytona versions. The ceramic bezel treatment, also seen on the Rolex Submariner and the Rolex GMT-Master II, has the benefits of being scratch-proof, corrosion-resistant, and keeps the black bezel from fading due to the effects of UV rays.

A steel Daytona with a black ceramic bezel and a white dial? Yes, please! Eager fans however, will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on them since Rolex has no word on its availability yet.