Launched in 1998, the new automatic Rolex Daytona was the successor to the manual wind 6263 and 6265 and was equipped with the famous Zenith El Primero movement caliber 4030, available in steel, steel and gold and full gold. This particular watch is equipped with an extremely rare blue dial which it seems never made into production and was mounted on a very limited amount of watches for friends or VIP's of the firm that wanted a blue dial. In fact there has only ever been two other Daytona ever offered at auction mounted with a similar dial but mounted in 18k yellow gold cases (See Christies, Lot 40, November 2013 Geneva and Phillips, Lot 173, November 2019). It is also interesting to note that some extremely rare watches were made upon request such as the rare reference 16516 made in platinum for a close friend of the company. While it is most likely that this small batch of dials were meant eventually to become regular production, it never made it, thus making these the ultimate grail modern Daytona.