78 Rolex A unique configuration, historically important and impressively collectible, Daytona, automatic chronograph wristwatch in platinum, with mother of pearl dial, box and original warranty, reference 16516.

Estimate: € 1.500.000 –⁠ 3.000.000

• Model Daytona
• Year 1999
• Reference 16516
• Case Material Platinum
• Case Number A712735
• Bracelet Material Leather strap
• Movement Automatic, cal. 4030, 31 jewels
• Movement Number 196'012
• Dimension 40mm Diameter
• Signed Case, dial and movement
• Accessories Accompanied by Rolex guarantee dated October 1999 stamped Rolex France, booklets, hang tags, invoice of Rolex Service Center and fitted presentation box.
• Literature This specific watch was previously sold in Sotheby's "Important Watches" auction on October 1 2018 as lot 2265 for € 755,000 circa.

For those fortunate enough to navigate the highest spheres of watch collecting, certain watches do not simply appear, they arrive like revelations. Pieces that compel even the most seasoned connoisseur to pause, to look again, and to realize that what lies before them belongs to an altogether different realm of rarity.
Within the vast and storied universe of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, a handful of watches exist in a category entirely their own. They were not created for catalogues, not destined for boutique windows, nor intended to satisfy market demand. Instead, they were born quietly, within the inner circles of the manufacture: objects of experimentation, discretion, and sometimes personal whim.
The present platinum reference 16516 belongs precisely to that rarefied world.
Produced in 1999 during the era of Patrick Heiniger, it forms part of the almost mythical group collectors have come to call the “FAB 4”: four platinum Zenith-powered Daytonas, each executed with hardstone dial. Two were fitted with different types of mother-of-pearl, one with turquoise, and one with lapis lazuli. Only these four watches are known to have been made.
To understand why such a watch is so mythical, one must consider that in the entire celebrated chapter of the Daytona history, manual or automatic, a platinum example was never before realized.
And then, in 1999, under the discreet yet visionary leadership of Heiniger, four platinum Daytonas were quietly commissioned. No announcements. No catalogue entries. No publicity. Each was given a previously unseen reference number, 16516.
Among these four watches, the present example holds an even more singular place.
According to the history preserved with the watch, Heiniger personally offered it in Paris as a wedding gift to Romain Sardou, the French novelist, screenwriter and husband of Francesca Gobbi. In order to deliver the watch outside Switzerland, it passed through the official retailer network, resulting in a warranty issued by Rolex France. This small administrative detail would ultimately transform the watch into something extraordinary: the only example of the four prototypes ever to be formally “commercialized”, while the other known pieces remained purely internal prototypes.
Its dial further reinforces its singular character. While the lapis lazuli version is often cited as the rarest configuration of the series, the present watch arguably surpasses it in individuality. The dial is composed of two distinct types of Tahitian mother-of-pearl, whose iridescent surface reveals shifting shades of charcoal, emerald and violet as light dances across it, creating a subtle yet fascinating contrast: the 12 hours counter at six o’clock is cut from a different segment than the rest of the dial surface.
Adding yet another layer of distinction, the watch is fitted with a platinum deployant clasp, a feature not observed on the other known examples from the series.
The watch made its only public appearance when it was sold at Sotheby’s in 2018, entering one of the most important and celebrated private watch collections in the world, where it has remained ever since.
Still preserved with its original box and guarantee, this Daytona transcends the notion of rarity. It represents one of those special moments in the history of Rolex when the manufacture quietly explored the outer edges of its own imagination.
In the world of Daytona collecting, this watch is not simply a milestone.
It is a monument.