Rolex Daytona Rainbow full Pavé Diamond 116595RBOW-0002
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116595RBOW Full Pave
This is the Rainbow Daytona on sparkle steroids!
Full factory set with cascading multi coloured baguette sapphires forming the bezel and hour markers.
7As if that isn’t enough, Rolex have doubled down on the dazzle and added a full diamond pave dial, shoulders and centre links.
Obviously, this is going to horrify some, but I have to admit that I really enjoy seeing what Rolex does when it undoes its top shirt button and sets out to party.
Its so unusual that it makes me smile every time, and this particular watch has me beaming.
Beneath the gemstones lies the same Daytona specs that we all know and love -
40mm diameter
20mm lug width
12.5mm thick
Lug to lug length of 46.5mm
All of the above keeps things wonderfully well proportioned and suitable for both male and female wrists.
This model is presented in 18 carat Everose gold which contains 76% gold, copper, silver and importantly, 2% platinum.
The use of platinum stabilises the copper and ensures that the rose gold hue does not fade over time.
This is where the “Everose” moniker comes from, because it stays forEVER ROSE.
The movement powering the beast is calibre 4130 which offers a 72 hour power reserve and 44 jewels, although lets face it, these are not the jewels we’re looking at right now so lets move on to the sapphires and diamonds.
Rolex employ both gemologists and gem setters.
Gemologists are responsible for quality control on the stones.
Gem setters are responsible to setting the stones into the watch.
They work together on one piece.
Rolex gemstones must show no visible inclusions at 10x magnification. If you know anything about gemstones, that is serious quality control for gemstones.
Only natural stones are used, for the Rainbow Daytona these are:
36 baguette cut sapphires,channel set, for the bezel.
11 baguette sapphire hour markers.
56 brilliant cut diamonds for the shoulders and crown guards.
I tried and failed to make a physical count of the diamonds that went into the dial, after 3 recounts due to interruptions from a hustle and bustle environment I gave up before the tears started, sorry guys, but there are a LOT on there.
Each sapphire is hand selected so that the stones cascade in a perfectly graduated rainbow.
Rolex are so tight on this that the sapphire selected for the hour makers MUST MATCH the stone set opposite on the bezel.
No match, start again.
Many stones are discarded during this process as the colours need to be exact.
The tolerance for setting the sapphires into the bezel is no more than 2 hundredths of a millimetre. That works out at a quarter of the width of a human hair.
This is to ensure that the stones all sit absolutely flush.
If you consider the amount of time and slavish perfectionism that goes into the manufacture of one Rainbow Daytona, you can start to understand the price-tag and rarity of the beast.
Gem set watches are not a new or modern phenomenon.
The very first wristwatch ever made was gem set (Breguet for the Queen of Naples) and became popular in the post war era of the 1940s when people were quite rightly celebrating life and survival while giving the finger to the austerity of the war years.
Rolex started to add typically sensible and conservative diamond markers to some of their Oyster models in the 50’s, and by the mid 60’s were producing full pave and gem set models in the Day-Date lines.
The Daytona received its first dose of diamonds in 1984 with references 6269 (brilliant cut bezel) and 6270 (baguette bezel), both had pave dials so even the most current iterations of gemstone Daytonas can find their roots in the Rolex history books.
As The Crown so consistently says - evolution not revolution.
Although it attracts plenty of detractors, the Rainbow Daytona is a truly iconic piece in that it has no real alternative - hear me out!
In a market flooded with watches that offer “a different option” to brand classics at varying price points there is nothing out there that can comfortably offer anything remotely similar.
Nautilus - Piaget Polo - Maen Manhattan
Royal Oak - GP Laureato - Tissot PRX (cue screaming)
Submariner - Pelagos or Black Bay 58
Vacheron Overseas - IWC Ingenieur - Chopard Alpine Eagle if you squint.
Daytona - Zenith Chronomaster Sport or Tudor Prince Date Chrono,
Rolex Daytona Rainbow - Nothing. Nada. Zip.
The closest that can be found to it is the Hublot Big Bang Integrated King Gold Rainbow, but the similarity starts and ends with both being sapphire set.
There is no true alternative and that, in my opinion, makes the Rainbow Daytona a genuinely special piece regardless of whether it holds universal appeal, which it absolutely does not.
But you know what?
I don’t hold universal appeal either and I’m marvellous. ;-)
While Rainbow-Love may not be universal, it is a watch that has captured the hearts and wrists of most of the hardcore collectors in the celebrity world although, it is the black dial variant that has appeared on the most wrists, including those of -
Kevin Hart
Mark Wahlberg
John Meyer
Lebron James
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The full diesel model is a much rarer piece and has so far been spotted on Harry Kane during the 2022 World Cup and on British rapper Stormzy.