Watches Wednesday: Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona Meteorite Dial

Rolex has just unveiled its 2021 Novelties at this year’s Watches & Wonders last week, and one of our favourites would definitely have to be the new Cosmograph Daytona with the Meteorite Dial. 

The meteorite dial gets its distinctive unique “chiseled” look with flecks of metallic on them from the crystallisation process within the material, naturally achieved through the natural cooling processes where there is a drop in temperature of a few degrees Celsius every million years. Working with such organic material requires the utmost precision of the craftsmen, particularly when cutting the meteorite into thin sections, followed by an application of a chemical treatment in order to reveal its internal structure and crystallisation formations, which are known as the Widmanstätten patterns.

Okay, so you might be thinking, “hmm.. but meteorite is not exactly something new in watches”. True, but did you also know that Rolex was the first to utilise meteorites and develop them into dials and pairing them with precious metals, including platinum? To date, the Maison has incorporated meteorite idols into the Daytona, Day-Date, Datejust, Pearlmaster, and GMT-Master II, all of which, are extremely rare and true collectors’ pieces. For the meteorite dial on this 2021 Cosmograph Daytona, Rolex uses the metallic meteorite from an asteroid that exploded millions of years ago, particularly the sections with well-formed surface with an abundance of different shapes and reflections.

Powered by the Calibre 4130, this timepiece comes in 3 different versions:  18 karat white gold with mono bloc Cerachrom bezel in black ceramic with tachymetric scale and an Oysterflex bracelet, 18 karat yellow gold and 18 karat Everosee gold on an Oyster bracelet.

Seeing as Daytonas are notoriously difficult to score, this is gonna be even more difficult because now, you can literally own a rare physical piece of the galaxy and wear it on your wrist (because naming a star after yourself or your loved one, is just too mainstream, heh).

Images courtesy of Rolex