Rolex. A stainless steel automatic chronograph wristwatch with rare Arabic numerals dial and bracelet

With Rolex Warranty, instructions, handkerchief and International Service Guarantee from Rolex UK dated 7 February 2007. Furthermore delivered with fitted veneered presentation box and outer packaging.

The present reference 16520 is fitted with a ultra-rare dial which is hardly known to even the most thoroughbred scholars. In fact, it is highlighted by raised Arabic numerals instead of the well-known baton hour markers. One can understandably expect a spontaneous response suspecting that this dial is taken from the white gold reference 16519 and does not constitute a rarity per se.

A close inspection however reveals that this dial here features black circles to the subsidiary dials, as one would expect on the regular stainless steel version of reference 16520 with white dial, whereas the "Arabic" dials reserved for the white gold reference 16519 feature silver-coloured rings at the outer of the subsidiary dials.

In-depth research seems to result in the discovery that ultra-rare crossover was indeed made, for reference 16519, during a very short period only but never maintained in regular production. In fact, we do not know of another example of a 1990s Rolex Daytona fitted with this type of dial.