Rolex Daytona 116505 Meteorite
4.5 BILLION years ago, it is likely that a planet shattered, potentially due to collision, and sent its its molten core flying into the universe.
As it travelled through space, the core hardened to an iron meteorite and floated for millions of years.
As the meteorite cooled, ribbons of iron and nickel formed creating a shimmering crosshatch effect now known as the Widmanstatten pattern.
These lumps of iron formed an asteroid belt, and after an impact event in prehistoric times, one of the meteorites hit the it earths atmosphere, broke on impact, and rained down on Namibia, close to the Great Fish River, and a town called Gibeon.
The meteorite became known as the Gibeon Meteorite and presented earth with about 26,000 tons of space metal.
Fast forward the through this extraterrestrial journey, take a detour through Geneva, and straight to its final destination, here, on my wrist, in Mayfair.
The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Meteorite Dial in Everose Gold.
There’s a joke here about only a few million years on the waiting list.
As you can see this dial exhibits a glorious Widmanstatten pattern which shimmers as it catches the light. The pale silver of the dial really compliments the full Everose gold case and bracelet.
Rolex Everose gold, which debuted in 2005, is a mixture of yellow gold, copper, and platinum and is made in their own foundry.
Their use of platinum to stabilise the copper and prevent it fading after time is what led the mixture of alloys to be called “Everose” as it keeps its for-ever-rose colouring.
The Daytona was launched in 1953 with reference 6239, a manual wind chronograph which was designed exclusively for racing cars.
Rolex at the time served as the official timekeeper for the Daytona International Speedway.
Times have changed somewhat since then with the Daytona now being seen as one of the worlds most sought after watches and available in a wide range of metals ranging from utility steel to baguette set platinum.
It has a well deserved place in history and will, next year, be celebrating its 60th Anniversary.
It will be interesting to see what Rolex does with its icon next.