Rolex opened Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026 with a quiet bombshell. The Cosmograph Daytona reference 126502 is the first Daytona configured in Rolesium—pairing Oystersteel with 950 platinum—and the first mostly-steel Daytona to be fitted with a Grand Feu enamel dial and a sapphire case back. Arriving in the centenary year of the Rolex Oyster case, which was patented in 1926, the watch reads like a fan-service exercise on paper and a genuine technical flex in the metal. This is also an off-catalog release, which means production will be even more constrained than the already elusive 126500LN.
Things to Know About the Watch
The 40 mm Oyster case retains the current-generation Daytona architecture, measuring 11.9 mm thick and featuring 100-meter water resistance, a monobloc middle case, Triplock crown, and screw-down chronograph pushers. What is new is the material vocabulary. The case middle and bracelet are 904L Oystersteel, while the thin band framing the bezel and the ring securing the sapphire caseback are both 950 platinum—the combination Rolex first designated as Rolesium on the 1999 Yacht-Master.
The bezel itself is a newly developed anthracite Cerachrom insert—slightly less dark than the usual black— in tungsten-rich ceramic, with a horizontally oriented tachymetric scale PVD-coated in platinum that visually echoes the earliest 1963 Cosmograph Daytonas. The dial is a four-piece Grand Feu enamel in stark white, with red "Daytona" script, applied 18K white gold hour markers, and Chromalight-filled white gold hands.
The Movement
Powering the reference 126502 is the in-house calibre 4131, the automatic chronograph movement introduced with the 2023 Daytona generation. It beats at 28,800 vph, delivers a 72-hour power reserve, and incorporates the Chronergy escapement, blue Parachrom hairspring with Rolex overcoil, variable-inertia balance with gold Microstella regulation, and Paraflex shock absorbers.
On the Wrist & Price
On the wrist, the 126502 carries the familiar heft and drape of the 126500LN, but reveals itself on closer inspection: the enamel dial has a depth that lacquer cannot replicate, and the anthracite bezel shifts warmly against the steel case in the light. The pricing is the debate, as this reference costs more than the solid white gold Daytona, a fact the market will litigate for some time. Rolex will point to the four-piece enamel dial, the new ceramic formulation, and the Rolesium caseback architecture as the justification—and for collectors who prize technical novelty over material weight, that case writes itself.
Sticker Price USD 57,800. More info on Rolex here.
