Of all the power couples working in Hollywood today, few attract more attention Zendaya-Tom Holland couple. While they play superheroes and frame warriors on screen, in real life they are avid watch collectors. It appears that Holland has begun creating its own assortment of Rolex pieces, Cartier, Patek PhilippeAnd the first Marvel check since TAG Heuer was cashed while Zendaya is an ambassador for The Crown. they are combining their Powers while campaigning Spider-Man: Brand New DayBut it’s the actress’ solo performance that has got wrist watchers excited.
The Rolex Daytona is the most iconic watch in the current Rolex catalogue. After releasing several new versions this year, including one with a sexy enamel dial, as an ambassador for the brand, it would be fitting for Zendaya to wear one of Crown’s recent releases. Instead, he rummaged around in the archives and pulled out one of the most fascinating and desirable Rolexes in Crown’s catalogue, the Ref. 16520 “Zenith” Daytona.
What makes the “Zenith” Daytona so interesting, you ask? For that, we have to turn back the clock a bit and go back into Daytona history. From 1960 to 1988, Rolex employed hand-wound movements in its flagship sports chronographs from the manufacturer Valjoux, which provided movements for several brands in Switzerland. Then, with a view to equipping his watch with a more modern engine, he knocked on the door of Zenith.
Why Zenith? Because in 1969, the Le Locle-based company invented one of the world’s first automatic chronograph movements, el primero. However, during the Quartz Crisis, management – then American firm Zenith Radio Corp – ordered the destruction of the equipment needed to produce the movement. Little did they know that a rebel watchmaker named Charles Vermot had secretly hidden it in an attic in the company’s Swiss manufacturing facility.
When Vermot later revealed that he had carefully hidden every component needed to create the El Primero movement, Zenith was able to restart production, and Rolex got the automatic chronograph movement needed to upgrade the Daytona in 1988.
These versions of the Daytona have become highly coveted. This era of Daytona manufacturing, which ended around 2000 when Rolex introduced its own in-house automatic chronograph movement, has a distinct look: subdials located close to the minute track, tritium lume (later production using LumiNova or Super Lumi-Nova), and distinctive bezel typography all give these watches away. They also represent one of the last eras before full vertical integration took over at Rolex.
