by Ian Skellern
We recently received a message from a reader asking our advice:
I am considering buying a Rolex Daytona with ceramic bezel and white dial. I have found a nice piece, box and papers, unworn, at (what seems to be) a reasonable price.

Rolex Daytona with Cerachrom bezel and white dial
I like this watch very much and am not planning to sell.
However – is it sensible to buy at double the original retail price?
I would like to be able to sell without losing money, if possible.
Rolex sports watch models (especially Daytona) have been hyped for some years, but previously not to the same extent.
I know that you can’t predict the future, but I would like your opinion.
Not only can we not predict the future, we do not even feel qualified to give an opinion on this. However, we thought that a few of our readers out there may be more familiar with Rolex Daytonas than we are and might be happy to share their thoughts.
If you have any advice or thoughts to share on this subject, please leave them in the comments below.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!
People want it because they can’t have it. It’s an irrational market. There are many, many better products for the price stated. I think you will inevitably regret this if you are buying it to keep.
I’d look at the overseas chrono in blue. IMHO its superior in every way.
My dealer has one coming in a month and I’m buying it for the original retail price I believe of approx 13k. My dealer brought me the green Rolex hat to my job last night, he said to hold me over for the next month. I can’t wait! Beautiful watch and it will be my first luxury watch.
Well said. This is the most logical answer.
I have both a black face and a white face ceramic Daytona. I love them! However, as cool as this watch is, I do not wear either as my daily because it does not have a date complication. I tend to wear my Sea Dweller and GMT Pepsi because they each have a date. That said, the Daytona is iconic, classic,
gorgeous and just cool! I’m up 22% on the current value. But watches are not ‘investments’. Buy it if you love it and can afford it. You will not be disappointed.
I had a daytona white dial and sold it at a attractive profit, instead I was able to attain a much more sophisticated watch from Patek at a serious discount, the size of the Daytona is too small. Buy a far better watch at presumably less money and be authentic in the way that the watch matches your personality, good luck !
I like this watch very much and am not planning to sell
I would like to be able to sell without losing money, if possible
I don’t get you.
Why is it so important to you to be able to resell it without losing money ? If you can afford it, then buy it.
You are contradicting yourself. You said you won’t be selling it but you also said you would like to be able to sell without losing?
For that kind of money there are better watches out there.
Steel sports Rolex is a product whose price is set by the market, not by the manufacturer. Official price is meaningless. If you want the watch for the watch itself, in other words to wear, and if you personally are willing to pay the asking price, and if you can afford it, then stop worrying, buy it, and enjoy it! I say this as someone who has done precisely this (at almost double the official price) and I’m still very happy I did.
That the price determined by the manufacturer is meaningless is a strange statement indeed. It is the price believed to be competitive in the market regarding this product’s specs and strengths. Everything else is speculation. OP, if you want to enter into speculation to collect future profit OR don’t care about eventual loss, buy. If you aren’t sure you’ll hold on to the watch and fear eventual loss, don’t. Simple.
This is wot I fink.
The price is set by two markets: the first, minimum price market being what the targeted consumer demographic will bear at retail in comparison to competitor products; the second which feeds on the aforementioned, is a reduced-minimum AND maximum price market being based on the over-availability or scarcity of products respectively, determined by the standards of consumption from the first market, and the supply (artificial or not)/demand balance that results – now the crucial factor in determining what the consumer will bear if they don’t want either to pay the primary market price, or HAVE to bear if they don’t want to wait years for something they want now.
Or, I suppose one could say all that is all just one market, bisected.
I think the purchase is really about intrinsic value to you. If you want it more than other things for that price, and can afford it comfortably, buy it.
But based on experience with supply and demand and inflated markets etc. it seems possible (though not definite) that you could lose money. Buying something to keep means the future value is meaningless. Value is only relevant for future sale.
In other words, if you’re really going to keep and enjoy it’s intrinsic value, but it. If you’re concerned about being able to exchange it for cash or another watch in the future, don’t buy it. As Paul has said, there are many other options in that price range that approach intrinsic value of that price (i.e. craftsmanship, precious metals, actual rarity) rather than just value derived from excessive demand at this moment in time, like the Daytona.
I definitely want a Daytona too, and can afford it, but it has reached a price point where, for me, it’s not worth the opportunity cost of buying something more special.
I took the money and bought instead a Patek 5960P, a watch which I purchased for 40% of its original selling value. It’s significantly more special than a Daytona (a $100k watch for $40k rather than a $10k watch for $25k). To each their own, but this makes me feel like I made a wider purchase.
The short answer for me is no, I wouldn’t buy it at double the retail price. But in actual it’s more complicated than that (as usually is with the uxury retail market).
I’m a middle class income earner and it used to be that a sports Rolex watch can be bought with relative ease in terms of income if my commitments (debts) are not too overwhelming. The pricing of a Rolex sports watch is such that it’s not too cheap that I can buy a number of them in a short period of time (i.e. G-Shocks), and it’s not too expensive either that I will have to take a loan to be able to afford it (i.e. Voutalainen). This, coupled with the prestige and marketing, positioned the Rolex sports watch as a trophy watch for middle income earners for that special occasion, i.e. a promotion, a newborne, etc. But as the Rolex sports watch availability goes down (reasons to which is subjected to another can of worms) the desirability of them goes up (a Veblen good). Now for the middle income earner, the average Rolex sports watch has gone from a slightly stretched, but achievable target to a very tightly streched one (in terms of grey prices, availability is arguably even less). The more popular ones like the Daytona and BLRO have become unobtainable in both price and availability.
This is the reason (at least for myself) why we are asking the question in this topic. In the good old days if we buy a Rolex worst case is we lose a couple of thousand dollars if we decide that we don’t want it anymore. With the grey prices nowadays, the exposure is much higher if we make the same decision. Even if we do say we will not sell the watch and intend to keep it forever, it is very comforting to know that our loses are minimal or there might even be gains to be made if we decided to sell the watch one day.
The current market prices has grown so high that people like myself are starting to have doubts as to whether it is a good decision to spend so much on a watch that the manufacturer has deemed to be worth half as much (after factoring in profit margins for both the manufacturer and the dealers no less!). We want the watch even more now due to its scarcity but the price is too high.
The longer answer for myself would be:
If I have the means financially, and it’s a watch that I really desire, then by all means pay the grey prices and have one. But if financially it’s too much of a stretch (especially at Daytona grey prices!), I’ll say pass and look at other options.
If you’re paying double the retail price – as the article title states – then you’ll lose money if/when you decide to sell it no matter what; either a little amount within the current bubble because it’s been through another owner, or a great amount when the bubble pops. Some advise going with the Zenith Daytona as not nearly as many of those were made as the Cerachroms have been, and it’s probably something that’ll keep a higher value come what may.
Ultimately, however, I wouldn’t pay double the retail price for anything. Start being a little horologically promiscuous and set your sights on something else. A pre-owned reverse-panda Overseas Chrono, or panda Royal Oak Chrono can be got for a similar amount if you look around.
The zenith market has doubled in the last 2-3 years as well. I bought one sub $10 in 2015 and the dealer I bought just contacted me a while ago. I see they’re nearly 3 times that price.
For the OP: These will likely dip in price at some point. But unless watches in general start falling (which is a bigger problem no matter your buying price) you won’t lose much as the Daytona has been a sought after watch for more than 2 decades.
I guess I have a hang up with the world relying on the net to make a decision for them, in all my years of buying watches I decided for myself, so good some bad that’s the fun of it.
I should clarify, Graham, by saying that the gentleman was only asking for advice as any sensible person would; he isn’t asking “the net” or anybody else to make the decision for him.
In fact he didn’t ask the net at all. He asked me what I thought, and I replied that I did not feel that I had enough experience of the Rolex market to offer informed advice. It was my idea to publish here in the hope that there might be a few of our readers out there who could help. Regards, Ian
Point taken
Im not trying to be the devil’s advocate but also I dislike mob mentality and want to bring a different perspective here. Why not do it? Sure maybe it s a hype, sure it might lose value. And so what? Will you be happy every day to have it? How much is that worth? I have one and I love it. Sure I didnt buy it aftermarket but maybe i would have. There are other pieces i would consider aftermarket. If you have that money, go for it. Imagine this actually were the retail price, would you thing it’s insane? I wouldn’t. It s a great watch. Or rather, even the « real » rrp is already insane. Nothing makes sense anyway. So let s stop the half-arsed rationalization and let people live.
When the stainless steel with Cerachrom bezel was first released, a couple of years ago, the market price was $20k USD for the white dial variant. I thought if I waited, the premium would decrease. Well, 2 years later, an Unworn one is now $28k USD.
and had I bought one 2 years ago for $20k USD, I could sell it now used for $24k USD
If you love it, have to have it now, will never need to sell it, and can afford it, then buy it. Otherwise, no. The price will come down during the next recession when people need money.
I was lucky to get my steel Daytona at retail price (sounds impossible, I know). I would never pay more than retail for any watch, and if it’s not available at retail, Id either just wait or look at something else.
The most sensible answer on here. If you’re stupid enough to pay double then go ahead.
Do you feel that paying retail for a watch that isn’t in demand and will drop 30-50% in value as soon as you walk out the shop (like a car) is a better financial proposition that paying extra for a watch that’s in high demand? My experience has been that cheaper does not equal better value, though I appreciate yours may differ. Who will look stupid if in a couple of years time it’s selling for 3 to 4 times retail?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCRRcXU7gM
The ceramic bezel model is the latest in a long dynasty of Rolex Daytona watches which, for at least THIRTY YEARS has been so popular that it has commanded stiff premiums throughout that time. No steel Daytona has ever depreciated in the long term, quite the opposite. The previous model was derided at £10,000 5 years ago; now it’s£15,000 to £18,000. The signs are there that the steel Daytona is always going to be an excellent thing to own, even if the initial price is painful.
Buy a steel Overseas and see how easy it is to shift along in 3 or 4 years’ time…
I really want to say that’s horseshit about it having had premiums for thirty years, but my memory’s too hazy to recall if I did see them easily available to buy in Jewellers in the early/mid 2000s, or if it was something else.
It’s a good point about the Overseas – I got an offer for £16200 for my year-old blue one, which is £200 more than I paid after discount, but certainly short of the £18,100 it is now, and Vacheron aren’t going to start throttling production to drip feed hungry markets anytime soon, what with being part of a big conglomerate that’s not spunked all the marketing budget on just one of its brands (although it seems to devote an inordinate amount to Lange). It’s only the big Swiss independents that do that; only one brand, nothing to spread the risk on, too big to fail.
Gill,
The Zenith model Daytona started hitting premiums from the moment it was introduced in the late 1980’s, early 1990s. No steel Daytona has ever not had a premium since then.
I personally know somebody who paid £10,000 for a new model with Rolex calibre when that first came out in 2001. The rrp then was around £6,900 I think.
There are few dealers putting people on waiting lists anymore so some options are: buy at grey prices and potentially regret a value hit at some point. Wait and see whether the price increases or decreases. Buy something else that will appreciate in value over time at the same rate or better. Long term (if that’s the aim) which of these will cost you more?
I agree with many other comments here, if you want it and can afford it buy it. I am a watch collector that believes in buying what I like/love and don’t care what there value will be down the road because it will still be the same watch I fell in love with. If you’re buying it because it’s the “cool” watch, to have, don’t bother because what’s “cool” is fluid and ever changing. With Rolex you get the least actual value for your money ie basic movements, basic finishing, basic complications. There are countless better watches for the money but as I stated before if you love it and can afford it then it will always be the right decision.
$20K for a stainless steel Daytona? No way, no how.
There are probably more SS Pepsi GMT’s on e-bay than on people’s wrists. It’s insane.
But then there’s that saying about a fool and his money…………
If you like it buy it. That‘a it. And you will certainly loose …. in the short run. Still you will loose less then you would with a different brand. But you are keeping it, aren’t you?
Cool watch, wold love one at retail. I think not worth the premium or grey price over $22k. Then the white cost even more, I like the black one anyway. Rolex is agreat brand, nice watches, but if paying extortion prices I think will be dissapointed. At the grey price point you should be looking at other pieces. And if planning to sell in the future don’t bother. If enjoy speculation then that is another question.