Rolex Daytona Reference 6239 with Non-Luminous Dial and Hands

In the world of vintage Rolex Daytonas, finding a watch that is possibly unique is essentially unheard of - even the famed Daytonas with "Paul Newman" exotic racing dials were made in the thousands. We have heard of a second example that is non luminous, but have not seen it. This vintage Daytona is another level of rare as the dial never had the tritium luminous plots all other vintage Daytonas had and the hands are solid without a space for the tritium luminous material to sit for reading the time at night. Dating to circa 1966, this Daytona has a silver "Big Daytona" dial where the ROLEX / COSMOGRAPH / DAYTONA text is lined up like a pyramid, which is an aesthetically-pleasing configuration and allows for the space above the hour register by 6:00 to be clear of any text. The watch is manually wound (like all vintage Daytonas made before 1988) and approximately 37mm in diameter. This watch emerged to the market from the original Canadian in 2020. According to him, “I purchased the Rolex new when I was a teenager here in Calgary, Alberta. I worked for the Hudson Bay Company (a department store) and we received a staff discount, so I paid $375 (CAD) for it new.” 

Why this watch is non-luminous is somewhat of a mystery, but it is clear that it was not a production error as the hands are notably non-luminous. Rolex made a small number of non-luminous tool / sport watches in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably the Milgauss designed for scientists and doctors working in environments such as nuclear plants. Although the watch was designed to withstand high magnetism, the original examples of the Milgauss reference 6541 also had non-luminous dials and hands as radiation-sensitive equipment such as Geiger counters could activate on watches with radioactive luminous material. Likewise, sailors on nuclear submariners required watches without luminous material for similar reasons of not wanting to trip equipment meant to detect radiation leaks. We may never know if this watch was some sort of test by Rolex to create a Daytona to be used in one of those challenging environments and that somehow ended up in a Canadian department store.

The central-seconds chronograph hand is possibly a replacement with a longer triangle tip. The watch does not come with box and papers. We do not know the service history, but it is running well. This is a rare opportunity to find an outstanding Daytona model. The watch just passed a water resistance test of 5 bar.

SOLD (Item SBUXYT2233)