A Brief History Of The Rolex 24 At Daytona
Why the competition for the Rolex Daytona continues on and off the circuit.
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Winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona is a great way to cop a Daytona, the grail watch of the decade. Technically, it would only take you 24 hours compared to the legendary 10-year-plus wait lists at retail. But it won’t be easy.
First, you need to be in almost superhuman physical and mental condition, so your body can withstand the steady punishment of G-force pressure over a sustained period, driving at speeds up to 200 mph. You’ll need a supercar with an engine built to withstand 24 straight hours of abuse. Plus, several sets of spare tires and a pit crew of up to a dozen technicians, mechanics and data crunchers. And you’ll need the courage of a gladiator.
Twenty awe-inspiring drivers from four teams accomplished all of those things over the weekend at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The race was extra thrilling this year because it debuted a new class of cars, the Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh), the fastest entries in this year’s 61-car grid. The top performers in the new class were Acuras and Cadillacs, and they were a sight to see. The winning LMDh team, led by driver Tom Blomqvist, took the trophy in car number #60, an Acura ARX-06 by Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian.
“This race is so special and that’s mainly because of the watch,” says Blomqvist, who started and finished the race. “Ask any driver and they will say it’s the dream to win a Daytona. I have to thank my team; they have done a phenomenal job with this new car and were so good with our strategy, staying calm and relaxed throughout. The feeling on the last lap was incredible, nothing beats it.”
As someone who has seen races on TV, I have to say there is nothing like experiencing the action live. I had the privilege of watching the race in person over the weekend as a guest of Rolex. You have to be on the grounds to really get a sense of the energy at the Daytona International Speedway. You hear the constant thunderous drone of the engines (in fact, you can hear them blocks away), and you physically feel the vibration as 61 cars come flying past on a straightaway at 200 mph. The adrenalin is palpable and contagious. On the first day of the race, my heart pounded every time the cars roared past (as it did when I did a hot lap before the race started).
Sharing a space with a room full of gearheads in the Rolex suite, they eagerly explained how the cars, engines and track protocols work—there is so much more to it than just driving around in circles all day and trying not to get killed. The auto writers were excited to check out how the new LMDh class cars would perform, and even I could see how impressive they were.
“The new LMDh class is both a technological and an aesthetic achievement,” Kyle Hyatt of Jalopnik told me during the race, “but it’s too early to say whether it will usher in a new era in the sport. The complexity of the cars with their new hybrid systems will mean some teething issues for the manufacturers, as we saw this weekend [one of the hybrid batteries failed late in the race], but once things are sorted out, it should be very exciting.”
I also gained insight from legendary American race car driver Hurley Haywood, who was available for a quick chat pre-race. Hurley, who is now retired, has five Rolex 24 At Daytona victories under his belt: 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1991. When asked about the new LMDh cars, Hurley said he was astonished by how high-tech they are: “The prototypes have a very unusual and complicated system, like a spaceship ready to take off. The steering wheel has 30 buttons, and the drivers have a 30-page manual that they have to memorise to make sure they push the right button at the right time. When I was racing, we had three lights, and if any of those three lights came on we knew we had a problem and we had to stop and figure it out. Now you’ve got 30 lights, all in different colours, as well as commands coming from the pits. Guys that are good on video games are where the next generation of drivers are going to come from. They can assimilate all that information very quickly and then make the right move.”
“I don’t think I could drive one of these cars,” he added. “When you’re driving, you have to concentrate 100 percent all the time on driving. Now you’ve got that same condition, plus you’ve got the commands from the pits, so that concentration is interrupted. When I was in the car, it was: don’t talk to me unless I’m on fire, or unless something really bad is happening.”
The winners in the other three car classes were:
– Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2): the #55 Proton Competition Oreca LMP2-07 Gibson securing victory by a remarkable 0.016 seconds.
– Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3): the #17 AWA Duqueine D08-VK, which led for the closing two hours.
– Grand Touring Daytona (GTD): the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 prevailed in GTD Pro, while the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 raced to their first GTD class win.
The History of the Rolex Daytona Race
Rolex has been associated with the sport since the beginning, bringing the cachet of the world’s most coveted watch to the speedway. Between 1903 and 1959, the races took place on the actual beach, on a hard-packed stretch of sand just above the surf—cars would often skid into the water on some of the turns. Anyone could enter the races, and legend has it that a number of the best drivers had been involved in contraband alcohol traditionally distilled in the Appalachian mountains in the southeastern United States, so they were well practiced in evading the federal agents who regularly chased after them.
When Sir Malcolm Campbell broke his own speed record on the beach in 1935, he had a Rolex Oyster strapped to his wrist. Dan Gurney, the champion who started the champagne-spraying tradition among winners, wore a Rolex Datejust when he won the first Daytona Continental (as it was called back then), in 1962.
By 1963, the Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6239 joined the action, a year after Rolex made its Daytona racing sponsorship official (this year’s prize was a two-tone Ref. 116503). The watch was originally introduced as the Cosmograph, but the Daytona signature was added a year later to commemorate Rolex’s official sponsorship role in 1964. By then, the action had regrouped at the new hard-surface racetrack. With urban development and the deterioration of the sand, beach racing had come to an end in the mid-1950s, and the new Daytona International Speedway took its place in 1959.
Driver Tom Kristensen, who holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, (also sponsored by Rolex) once said: “Ask anyone in the motorsports world to name a watch and the first to be mentioned is bound to be the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. It has a history and class around it that everyone trying to aim for the top in motor sport understands and respects. Motorsport is all about getting the best out of your machine through optimisation and technology, and anyone who is interested in that is also interested in mechanical watches.”
The Daytona has evolved over the years with continual upgrades, including new movements, stronger materials and minor design tweaks that improved yet preserved the original look. Here’s a brief timeline:
1963: Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239
The first Daytona, Ref. 6239, was introduced under the name Cosmograph, Rolex’s first chronograph with contrasting subdials, and the first to have a tachymeter scale engraved on the metal bezel rather than printed on the dial.
1964: Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239
The “Daytona” signature was introduced to commemorate Rolex’s sponsorship of the motor race at Daytona Beach. Models produced over the next few years can be dated according to the placement of the logo: From 1964 to 1967, “Daytona” was placed at 12 o’clock under the word “Cosmograph.” From 1967 onwards, it was placed above the subdial at 6 o’clock.
1988: Rolex Daytona Ref. 16520
The Ref. 16520 was the first Daytona fitted with an automatic movement, the Rolex calibre 4030, based on the Zenith Calibre 4030.
2000: Rolex Calibre 4130
An in-house movement, calibre 4130 was added to the model in 2000’s Ref. 116520. The 4130 is a high-performance chronograph movement with a vertical clutch and a Parachrom balance spring, resulting in better amplitude and greater accuracy.
2016: Rolex Daytona With a Cerachrom Bezel
A milestone year for the Daytona, with the introduction of what is widely referred to as the perfect combination of elements: a steel case with a black Cerachrom bezel and the automatic calibre 4130.
2017: Rolex Daytona With an Oysterflex Strap
Rolex introduced the gold Daytona on an Oysterflex rubber strap in 2017. As the first in the series to be produced in precious metal with a rubber strap and Cerachrom bezel, this is also destined to become a collector’s favourite.
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8 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Aston Martin
The British sports car company is most famous as the vehicle of choice for James Bond, but Aston Martin has an interesting history beyond 007.
Aston Martin will forever be associated with James Bond, ever since everyone’s favourite spy took delivery of his signature silver DB5 in the 1964 film Goldfinger. But there’s a lot more to the history of this famed British sports car brand beyond its association with the fictional British Secret Service agent.
Let’s dive into the long and colourful history of Aston Martin.
The origin of the Aston Martin name
The company that would become Aston Martin started out as a car dealership. In 1912, Englishmen Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin partnered to sell cars, but soon after they decided to build their own models. Their first prototype debuted in 1915, named in honour of Martin, a racing driver, and his favourite racing venue, Aston Hills. Thus, the name Aston Martin was born.
A speed-demon co-founder banned from driving
Aston Martin co-founder Lionel Martin wasn’t just a keen racing driver—he was an all-out speed demon. As a student, Martin won numerous gruelling bicycle racing records, including riding nearly the full width of England in one 22-hour stretch. He competed in motorcycle and sidecar races and automotive hillclimb competitions. It seems he also brought that need for speed to the public roadways: In 1909, having neglected to pay a previous speeding fine, Martin was caught driving 41.5 km/ph in London and was banned from driving for two years—during which he set yet another cross-country bicycle record.
A tractor company takes over
The years after World War I were tumultuous for Aston Martin, with financial difficulties and numerous takeovers. In 1947, Aston Martin went up for sale and was purchased by David Brown Limited, a company that specialised in farm tractors and industrial gears. Sir David Brown, grandson of the company’s founder, was a lifelong car enthusiast and racer, having built his own competition cars while working as an engineer at the family company. The first car built by Aston Martin after this takeover was called the DB1, named after the tractor company (and the man) that had saved the carmaker.
An indirect connection to Bentley
Around the same time that Sir David Brown took over Aston Martin, he purchased another struggling British carmaker, Lagonda. The company was developing a revolutionary twin-cam six-cylinder engine called the LB6, and Sir David wanted the engine for his new line of Aston Martin sports cars. The Lagonda engine had been designed by none other than W.O. Bentley—the man who co-founded Bentley Motors, who had long since been pushed out of the company bearing his name.
The history of the DB Series
Aston Martin built seven vehicles named in honour of owner Sir David Brown: The DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4, DB5, DB6, and the combo-breaker DBS all bore Sir David’s initials. In 1972, Sir David sold the car company, and the new owners ended the DB series of vehicles, but the name was revived in 1993 with the DB7 in honour of Sir David—who himself was given an honorary position at the company that same year.
Bond, James Bond
Of course, the most famous Aston Martin of them all is the DB5. Just over 1,000 examples were built between 1963 and 1965, but millions worldwide know this as the James Bond car. In the books, author Ian Fleming had specified an earlier Aston Martin DB Mark III as Bond’s car. Still, the DB5 was introduced in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger, equipped with gadgets including machine guns, smoke screens, oil slicks, an ejector seat, and rotating license plates. Bond has driven several Aston Martin models over the years, including a V8 Vantage, a V12 Vanquish, and two DBS models, but the original DB5 will always be considered the quintessential Bond car.
The angular years
Today, the Aston Martin badge is most closely associated with swooping, evocatively curvy car designs, but in the 1970s the company was obsessed with angular, wedge-shaped designs. The trend began in 1976 with the Aston Martin Lagonda, a shockingly unconventional four-door luxury sedan with “folded-paper” body styling and the world’s first all-digital instrument panel. The Lagonda’s styling was further evolved in 1979 with the Bulldog, a radical concept car with gullwing doors and a sharply pointed nose. The Bulldog was meant to become the fastest road car on earth, but the project was abandoned before production could begin.
For Bond’s eyes only
While most of James Bond’s Aston Martins have been commercially available to anyone who could afford one, the DB10 seen in the 2015 film Spectre was exclusive to 007. As Aston Martin executive Marek Reichman explained to Variety, director Sam Mendes, producer Barbara Broccoli, and Bond star Daniel Craig were touring Aston Martin’s design studios when they saw a concept sketch on the wall. The Bond team insisted that this should be 007’s next car, and Aston Martin spent the next six months furiously working to turn the drawing into a real-world car. The DB10 was unveiled during the launch of the film Spectre, and eight of the 10 examples built were featured in the movie, with the remaining two used for promotional appearances.
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The Italian city will now charge visitors an entry fee during peak season.
Visiting the Floating City just got a bit more expensive.
Venice is officially the first metropolis in the world to start implementing a day-trip fee in an effort to help the Italian hot spot combat overtourism during peak season, The Associated Press reported. The new program, which went into effect, requires travellers to cough up roughly €5 (about $AUD8.50) per person before they can explore the city’s canals and historic sites. Back in January, Venice also announced that starting in June, it would cap the size of tourist groups to 25 people and prohibit loudspeakers in the city centre and the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’ Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official, told AP News. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
During this trial phase, the fee only applies to the 29 days deemed the busiest—between April 25 and July 14—and tickets will remain valid from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Visitors under 14 years of age will be allowed in free of charge in addition to guests with hotel reservations. However, the latter must apply online beforehand to request an exemption. Day-trippers can also pre-pay for tickets online via the city’s official tourism site or snap them up in person at the Santa Lucia train station.
“With courage and great humility, we are introducing this system because we want to give a future to Venice and leave this heritage of humanity to future generations,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) regarding the city’s much-talked-about entry fee.
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Omega Reveals a New Speedmaster Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics
Your first look at the new Speedmaster Chronoscope, designed in the colour theme of the Paris Olympics.
The starters are on the blocks, and with less than 100 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega was bound to release something spectacular to mark its bragging rights as the official timekeeper for the Summer Games. Enter the new 43mm Speedmaster Chronoscope, available in new colourways—gold, black, and white—in line with the colour theme of the Olympic Games in Paris this July.
So, what do we get in this nicely-wrapped, Olympics-inspired package? Technically, there are four new podium-worthy iterations of the iconic Speedmaster.
The new versions present handsomely in stainless steel or 18K Moonshine Gold—the brand’s proprietary yellow gold known for its enduring shine. The steel version has an anodised aluminium bezel and a stainless steel bracelet or vintage-inspired perforated leather strap. The Moonshine Gold iteration boasts a ceramic bezel; it will most likely appease Speedy collectors, particularly those with an affinity for Omega’s long-standing role as stewards of the Olympic Games.
Notably, each watch bears an attractive white opaline dial; the background to three dark grey timing scales in a 1940s “snail” design. Of course, this Speedmaster Chronoscope is special in its own right. For the most part, the overall look of the Speedmaster has remained true to its 1957 origins. This Speedmaster, however, adopts Omega’s Chronoscope design from 2021, including the storied tachymeter scale, along with a telemeter, and pulsometer scale—essentially, three different measurements on the wrist.
While the technical nature of this timepiece won’t interest some, others will revel in its theatrics. Turn over each timepiece, and instead of a transparent crystal caseback, there is a stamped medallion featuring a mirror-polished Paris 2024 logo, along with “Paris 2024” and the Olympic Rings—a subtle nod to this year’s games.
Powering this Olympiad offering—and ensuring the greatest level of accuracy—is the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 and 9909, certified by METAS.
A Speedmaster to commemorate the Olympic Games was as sure a bet as Mondo Deplantis winning gold in the men’s pole vault—especially after Omega revealed its Olympic-edition Seamaster Diver 300m “Paris 2024” last year—but they delivered a great addition to the legacy collection, without gimmickry.
However, the all-gold Speedmaster is 85K at the top end of the scale, which is a lot of money for a watch of this stature. By comparison, the immaculate Speedmaster Moonshine gold with a sun-brushed green PVD “step” dial is 15K cheaper, albeit without the Chronoscope complications.
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The Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope in stainless steel with a leather strap is priced at $15,725; stainless steel with steel bracelet at $16,275; 18k Moonshine Gold on leather strap $54,325; and 18k Moonshine Gold with matching gold bracelet $85,350, available at Omega boutiques now.
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We put Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4 under the microsope.
In our quest to locate the most exclusive and exciting wines for our readers, we usually ask the question, “How many bottles of this were made?” Often, we get a general response based on an annual average, although many Champagne houses simply respond, “We do not wish to communicate our quantities.” As far as we’re concerned, that’s pretty much like pleading the Fifth on the witness stand; yes, you’re not incriminating yourself, but anyone paying attention knows you’re probably guilty of something. In the case of some Champagne houses, that something is making a whole lot of bottles—millions of them—while creating an illusion of rarity.
We received the exact opposite reply regarding Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4. Yasmin Allen, the company’s president and CEO, told us only 7,328 bottles would be released of this Pinot Noir offering. It’s good to know that with a sticker price of around $1,800, it’s highly limited, but it still makes one wonder what’s so exceptional about it.
Known by its nickname, Ace of Spades, for its distinctive and decorative metallic packaging, Armand de Brignac is owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy and Jay-Z and is produced by Champagne Cattier. Each bottle of Assemblage No. 4 is numbered; a small plate on the back reads “Assemblage Four, [X,XXX]/7,328, Disgorged: 20 April, 2023.” Prior to disgorgement, it spent seven years in the bottle on lees after primary fermentation mostly in stainless steel with a small amount in concrete. That’s the longest of the house’s Champagnes spent on the lees, but Allen says the winemaking team tasted along the way and would have disgorged earlier than planned if they’d felt the time was right.
Chef de cave, Alexandre Cattier, says the wine is sourced from some of the best Premier and Grand Cru Pinot Noir–producing villages in the Champagne region, including Chigny-les-Roses, Verzenay, Rilly-la-Montagne, Verzy, Ludes, Mailly-Champagne, and Ville-sur-Arce in the Aube département. This is considered a multi-vintage expression, using wine from a consecutive trio of vintages—2013, 2014, and 2015—to create an “intense and rich” blend. Seventy percent of the offering is from 2015 (hailed as one of the finest vintages in recent memory), with 15 percent each from the other two years.
This precisely crafted Champagne uses only the tête de cuvée juice, a highly selective extraction process. As Allen points out, “the winemakers solely take the first and freshest portion of the gentle cuvée grape press,” which assures that the finished wine will be the highest quality. Armand de Brignac used grapes from various sites and three different vintages so the final product would reflect the house signature style. This is the fourth release in a series that began with Assemblage No. 1. “Testing different levels of intensity of aromas with the balance of red and dark fruits has been a guiding principle between the Blanc de Noirs that followed,” Allen explains.
The CEO recommends allowing the Assemblage No. 4 to linger in your glass for a while, telling us, “Your palette will go on a journey, evolving from one incredible aroma to the next as the wine warms in your glass where it will open up to an extraordinary length.” We found it to have a gorgeous bouquet of raspberry and Mission fig with hints of river rock; as it opened, notes of toasted almond and just-baked brioche became noticeable. With striking acidity and a vein of minerality, it has luscious nectarine, passion fruit, candied orange peel, and red plum flavors with touches of beeswax and a whiff of baking spices on the enduring finish. We enjoyed our bottle with a roast chicken rubbed with butter and herbes de Provence and savored the final, extremely rare sip with a bit of Stilton. Unfortunately, the pairing possibilities are not infinite with this release; there are only 7,327 more ways to enjoy yours.
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Bill Henson Show Opens at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Dark, grainy and full of shadows Bill Henson’s latest show draws on 35 mm colour film shot in New York City in 1989.
Bill Henson is one of Australia’s best-known contemporary photographers. When a show by this calibre of artist opens here, the art world waits with bated breath to see what he will unveil.
This time, he presents a historically important landscape series that chronicles a time in New York City that no longer exists. It’s a nostalgic trip back in time, a nocturnal odyssey through the frenetic, neon-lit streets of a long-lost America.
Known for his chiaroscuro style, Henson’s cinematic photographs often transform his subject into ambiguous objects of beauty. This time round, the show presents a mysterious walk through the streets of Manhattan, evoking a seedy, yet beautiful vision of the city.
Relying on generative gaps, these landscapes result from Henson mining his archive of negatives and manipulating them to produce a finished print. Sometimes, they are composed by a principle of magnification, with Henson honing in on details, and sometimes, they are created through areas of black being expanded to make the scene more cinematic and foreboding. Like silence in a film or the pause in a pulse, the black suggests the things you can’t see.
Henson’s illustrious career has spanned four decades and was memorably marred by controversy over a series of nude adolescent photographs shown in 2008, which made him front-page news for weeks. This series of portraits made Henson the subject of a police investigation during which no offence was found.
In recent years, Henson has been a sharp critic of cancel culture, encouraging artists to contribute something that will have lasting value and add to the conversation, rather than tearing down the past.
His work deals with the liminal space between the mystical and the real, the seen and unseen, the boundary between youth and adulthood.
His famous Paris Opera Project, 1990-91, pictured above, is similarly intense as the current show, dwelling on the border between the painterly and the cinematic.
Bill Henson’s ‘The Liquid Night’ runs until 11 May 2024 at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 8 Soudan Ln, Paddington NSW; roslynoxley9.com.au
