With Watches and Wonders opening in less than two weeks, most of the attention from social media has been focused on Rolex and Patek Philippe, but mostly Rolex, in keeping with all previous years. 2023 is the 60th anniversary of the Daytona, the 70th for the Submariner and the 90th for the Oyster Perpetual models. I have previously postulated that this is the year that a Titanium Daytona may be released and now I believe that Rolex will not only change the case and aesthetics but they will also upgrade the Daytona’s 4130 movement which has been in existence since 2000. It was the Rolex Daytona’s first fully manufactured in-house movement that replaced the 4030 Zenith El Primero movement which ran in the Rolex Daytona (Zenith Daytona series 16500) from 1988-2000. Although the current 4130 movement (series 116500) keeps a 70 hr power reserve and has remained robust for 23 years here’s why I think Rolex will upgrade it for its 60th anniversary.

THE SUBDIALS ON THE 4130 MOVEMENT DON’T ALIGN WITH THE 9 and 3 O’CLOCK HOUR INDICES

Both the Zenith Daytona and 4130 movement place the chronograph subdials at 3 o’clock (Fig.1)

The previous Zenith Daytona movement 4030 sported the seconds subdial at 9 o’clock whereas the current 4130 in-house Rolex movement places the seconds subdial at 6 o’clock (Fig. 1). The hour chronograph subdial on the Zenith movement is placed at 6 o’clock and respectively placed at 9 o’clock on the 4130 movement.

The reversal of these two subdials is not what bothers me about the 4130 Rolex in-house movement. What does bother me is that in the 4130 movement, the two subdials at 9 and 3 o’clock do not align with the 9 and 3 o’clock hour indices respectively. These subdials are slightly raised upward as compared to the Zenith movement which aligns perfectly. This discrepancy is highlighted by the arrows in Figure 1. I am unsure as to why this is the case but probably has to do with the movement underneath being slightly displaced. Or perhaps it has to do with the vertical clutch that was added to the new movement but I’m just postulating here.

In any event, this detail is quite noticeable to the naked eye and if it is bothersome to me then it is sure to irk someone at Rolex enough to rectify this anomaly.

Therefore, I think the new 4230 Daytona movement will sport the new subdials that align perfectly with the 9 and 3 o’clock hour indices. Not that the iconic Daytona needed much improvement, but now it will be even more perfect.

Figure 1: Top dial Zenith Daytona 4030 movement. Bottom dial Rolex in-house 4130 movement. Notice the red arrows which delineate the misalignment of the 9 and 3 o’clock subdials with the 9 and 3 o’clock hour indices. Source: Daytona Self-Winding, Franco and Guido Mondani, 2019.