Vintage Rolex Daytona 6239 Stainless Steel

This Daytona is in overall great, honest vintage condition. The case is in good condition with scratches, nicks, and normal signs of wear. The inside caseback is stamped “6239 CRS.” The numbers are clearly visible between the lugs. The base 300 bezel is in great, honest condition with some scratches, nicks and normal signs of wear. The paint is still mostly in-tact in all the numbers. The dial is in overall great condition with some wear and when looking closely it has some marks that can be hard to see. The dial has a couple small scratches above the six o’clock register. The lume plots on the dial have developed patina and aged to an attractive yellow color. Some of the lume plots show signs of degradation (3, 7, 9 o’clock). The sub-dial have aged and turned from black to chocolate brown throughout; this is known as a “tropical dial.” The hands have developed patina and the lume in the hands has developed patina. This comes on its original 7835 bracelet with super rare no. 71n end links. The clasp is stamped “2 68” which makes sense for the 1967 production of the watch. The bracelet is in overall great, honest condition with scratches and normal signs of wear; it has a bit of stretch between the links which is not uncommon. The crown on the clasp is still prominent. The movement has some scratches and watchmaker marks on some of the bridges. The crystal has some scratches.

While Rolex had been producing chronographs since the 1930s, it wasn’t until the release of the reference 6239 that the model was officially named and categorized. The earliest 6239s did not carry the “Daytona” name—originally called the “LeMans”—but Rolex’s sponsorship of the 24 Hours of Daytona soon gave the watch its now-iconic title, the Cosmograph Daytona.

The 6239 introduced two major firsts for Rolex chronographs: contrasting color sub-dials and an engraved tachymeter bezel. Early examples, like this one, feature the rare 300 units-per-hour bezel, which Rolex later replaced with a 200 scale in the late 1960s. Around the same time, Rolex also shifted the “Daytona” name from the 12 o’clock position to above the 6 o’clock sub-dial, and replaced the original pump pushers with the now-standard screw-down versions.

This watch stands out for its early 300 bezel, “long” hour hand, thin running seconds hand, and original 7835 bracelet with rare 71N end links. Known among collectors as the “Big Daytona,” this early 6239 features the oversized “Daytona” text on the dial—a variation Rolex briefly experimented with before settling into the design language that endures today.

This watch has tropical sub-dials that were born black and now are chocolatey brown. It comes from the family of the original owner who loved and cherished the watch for many decades.