Rolex Daytona Stone Dials

The Rolex Daytona was created as a utilitarian sports watch, invented for the use of professional racers. Today, it is without a doubt the most famous and coveted luxury chronograph out there.

In the 1990s, Rolex emphasized the luxury nature of the Daytona by pairing its robust construction with solid gold finish and diamonds, gems, and precious stones. Together with the beefed up 40mm case and automatic movement, Rolex succeeded in creating highly sought-after models that ‘waiting lists’ became the norm.

The Rolex Daytona has been commercially available with five different hard stone dials – sodalite, grossular garnet, chrysoprase, turquoise, and meteorite – as well as a number of hues of mother of pearl. Let’s take a closer look.

Meteorite comes from the core of an asteroid or potentially even a planet, driving the material throughout the Solar System until chance takes it into our planet’s orbit. Meteorite dials are etched from iron and nickel, which eventually reveals patterns reminiscent of the Moon’s surface.

Rolex first produced meteorite dials for the Daytona in 2014, accompanied by 18k white gold cases, Roman numerals, and leather straps. For Baselworld 2021, Rolex introduced a new trio of gold Daytonas with either Ceramic or metal bezels, Oyster or Oysterflex bracelets, and a beautiful meteorite dial. This type of watch face adds an interesting flair and makes the black sub-dials in the center and red “Daytona” text pop.

While not made of stone, mother of pearl (MOP) lends the same amount of exoticism as precious stones. Rolex began incorporating mother of pearl in dial designs in the ‘80s and it has since become a popular element of many models. Some jewelry designers even artificially modify mother-of-pearl colors, but that’s never the case for Rolex.

Mother of pearl, also known as nacre, is the iridescent lining within a mollusk shell. It is predominantly found in pearl oysters, mussels, and abalone and keeps unwanted elements from irritating the insides of the shell. Light reflects off these layers, resulting in multicolored iridescence that might seem pink, white, black, or yellow depending on the portion of the shell from which it is taken. As a result, no two MOP dials are alike.

For the Daytona range, Rolex makes use of two types of mother of pearl – white mother of pearl and Tahitian or black mother of pearl, which has a deep purple hue with pinkish and green tones. They are often punctuated with gold-outlined diamond hour markers with an option of hammered gold sub-dials for added elegance.

Each of these rare and unique stone dials pairs well with a multitude of metals and gives any Rolex Daytona an identity of its own. Explore our collection of Rolex Daytona stone dial watches at SwissWatchExpo.com.