What’s essentially the most you’re prepared to spend to get a wristwatch? For a choose group of well-heeled individuals, that quantity can attain hundreds of thousands.
However there’s one watch that may not be purchased, solely earned: The specifically engraved Rolex Daytona awarded completely to the successful drivers of the Rolex 24 at Daytona or the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Rivals spend a lifetime getting ready for these races, hoping for that elusive victory—and a brand-new watch.
In opposition to the backdrop of the 2024 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca throughout Monterey Automobile Week, Motor1 spoke with two residing legends of racing: Method 1 champion Jenson Button, and sports-car racing legend Hurley Haywood. Each drivers are Rolex ambassadors, keen to debate the attract of those race-won watches and what they imply to the motorsport neighborhood.
Rolex grew to become the title sponsor of the 24 at Daytona in 1992, and since then has given prize watches to drivers who take first place in every class. (Since 2001, Rolex has additionally given commemorative watches to winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, however this prize is reserved for the general winner.)
“They’re a trophy that you would be able to put on to the bar,” stated James Stacey, lead editor at watch fanatic publication Hodinkee. Normally, Stacey stated, the race-winner watch is a Rolex Daytona, just like what’s obtainable to retail prospects, although some years characteristic uncommon shade combos.
“There are individuals who spend hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to win one in all these watches,” Stacey stated. “They simply may have simply purchased one thing very related on the retailer, even paying approach over retail.” However that wouldn’t have the identical which means.
Hurley Haywood has 5 watches commemorating his 5 general victories on the Rolex 24 at Daytona. They weren’t precisely awarded chronologically.
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“The very first watch I obtained for successful the race was 1991,” Haywood informed Motor1. “However that was my fifth win.” 1991 was the primary 12 months that Rolex gave out Cosmograph Daytonas on the rostrum, and Haywood’s Joest Racing co-drivers every obtained a watch commemorating their victory in a Porsche 962 C. Haywood obtained a little bit additional.
“Roland Puton, who was the president of Rolex, stated, we’re going to backdate it,” Haywood informed Motor1. “I’d received 5 [Rolex 24 at Daytona] races as much as that time, he backdated it 4 occasions, so I obtained 5 watches on that deal.”
Along with being America’s biggest endurance racing driver, Haywood is a real watch connoisseur. There’s no person on earth extra certified to elucidate the attraction of a race-winner Rolex.
“That watch represents why everyone on the planet needs to win that race,” he stated of the Daytona prize watch. “Quite a lot of the blokes are very rich, they’ll purchase no matter they need to. However successful that watch, for that race, is the one they need. It beats any trophy.”
“The very first watch I obtained for successful the race was 1991… However that was my fifth win.”
Haywood’s watch assortment contains one other Daytona, a present from Rolex commemorating his function as Grand Marshal of the 2013 working of the 24-hour race. Like every of his race-winner watches, it bears a private engraving from Rolex on the again, making it an irreplaceable one-of-one. Within the loopy world of watch gathering, some people have been brazen sufficient to try to purchase one in all Haywood’s trophy watches.
“I’ve been supplied obscene quantities of cash for a number of the watches that I’ve,” he informed Motor1. “Loopy. Regardless of how a lot they might give me, it’s only a private factor—I’m not going to promote any watches that I received.”
Method 1 champion, SuperGT champion, and present World Endurance Championship competitor Jenson Button took time away from racing his 1952 Jaguar C-Kind on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion to talk with media visitors of Rolex. Regardless of being a Rolex Testimonee since 2021, Button was characteristically forthright in regards to the watches lacking from his assortment.
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“I’ve by no means received a Rolex watch,” Button informed Motor1. “I’ve solely ever performed two races the place I can. I did Daytona this 12 months, first time—completed on the rostrum, which was good. I’ve raced at Le Mans thrice. That is the primary 12 months the place we had a automotive that was adequate to combat in entrance. However we completed ninth on the lead lap.”
A race-won Rolex Daytona at present eludes the F1 champ.
Since retiring from full-time Method 1 racing at 36 in 2016, Button has competed in an astounding number of motorsport sequence, starting from Trophy Vans to period-correct races on the Goodwood Revival. Victory at Daytona remains to be on his radar.
“Everybody loves racing at Daytona,” he informed Motor1. “They need to win as a result of they need to win, however there’s a lot pleasure about successful a Rolex Daytona at Daytona. Individuals come and do a one-off race there, like I did, since you need to win a Rolex Daytona. It’s nuts, the sum of money that individuals spend to win the race [just] to win the Rolex. I do know drivers which have 4 or 5, and I’m like, ‘I hate you.’”
Button owns a metal Daytona, a present to himself upon beginning his Method 1 profession in 2000 at age 20.
“Moments in your life, moments in time,” he stated. “It’s like music, fragrance—for me, watches convey me again.”
“Everybody loves racing at Daytona… They need to win as a result of they need to win, however there’s a lot pleasure about successful a Rolex Daytona at Daytona.”
One other Cosmograph Daytona in his assortment has private motorsports provenance. Button purchased it as a present for his father, John Button, then inherited it when the previous rallycross driver handed away.
“Rolex has been round motorsport for thus lengthy,” Button stated. “I feel the connection for racing drivers is that we love the mechanical side of it.” He mentions his 1952 Jaguar, initially owned by Juan Manuel Fangio. “That C-Kind, you’ve obtained an actual connection to it. You’ve obtained to heel-and-toe, you’ve obtained to get the correct revs, all that kind of stuff is tremendous cool. And I really feel {that a} mechanical watch is identical. The precision is insane, and that’s what I feel we love.”
Button has three extra races this season driving the No. 38 Porsche of Hertz Group Jota within the FIA World Endurance Championship. As of now, he plans to stick with Jota for 2025—which might give him one other shot at successful the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Rolex that comes with an general victory on the legendary endurance race.
“That’s all the time the best,” Button informed Motor1. “To win a Rolex.”
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