Not Quite Whiter Than White – The Reality of the Rare Rolex ‘Albino’ Daytona Ref. 6263 – Vintage Rolex and other iconic timepieces under the loupe at Perezcope
On December 5, 2025, Sotheby’s will conduct a collection of auctions in Abu Dhabi, UAE, together with the Prestigious Jewels & Watches from an Important Private Collection. One of the highlights is a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6263 with a uncommon all-silver, monochromatic ‘Albino’ dial, which might go for giant cash. Collectors striving for this trophy piece will probably be to be taught that the ‘Albino’ just isn’t a manufacturing facility unique Rolex mannequin. These are watches created previously 30 years with what are believed to be Ref. 6238 Pre-Daytona service dials present in corresponding timepieces from South America. Essentially, they’re Frankenstein watches. Published in a guide titled Fero – 150 Steel Chronographs, the current watch is new to the public sale market. It is certainly one of three identified items and is sort of an identical to the primary ‘Albino’ to look available on the market, which as soon as famously belonged to guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Clapton and was bought by him at Christie’s New York in June 2003 for USD 50,190. In May 2015, Clapton’s ex-watch bought for USD 1.42 million at Phillips. The moniker ‘Albino’ was coined by legendary British watch vendor Tom Bolt, aka Watch Guru, who, whereas working carefully with me on the Rolex Sea-Dweller Chronicles throughout the pandemic lockdowns, got here ahead with probably the most attention-grabbing piece of details about the delivery of the very first ‘Albino’ Daytona.
Birth of The ‘Albino’ Daytona Ref. 6263
Having solid a friendship with Tom Bolt, aka Watch Guru (IG: @watchguru_), someday, whereas engaged on a analysis challenge for him, Eric Clapton’s well-known ‘Albino’ Daytona got here up in our dialog. Tom, who has been within the enterprise for greater than 30 years, instructed me he had owned the watch within the late Nineties and that the moniker ‘Albino’ was his invention, as have been many different well-known nicknames, by the way in which, like John Player Special (JPS), Great White (1655), The Beast (AP RO Offshore) and The Cobra (AP) to call a number of. Of course the subject of appreciation got here up as effectively. The watch went from USD 50,190 when Clapton bought it at Christie’s in 2003, to a whopping 10x or USD 505,000 at Sotheby’s in 2008. In 2015, it bought at Phillips for CHF 1,325,000 (USD 1.42M).
Our animated dialog out of the blue quieted down a tad as Tom appeared preoccupied with one thing. What is it, Tom? I requested. Not eager to misinform me, Tom spilled probably the most unbelievable tin of beans however requested me to maintain the data to myself.
Today, Tom is championing a board that defines new requirements for watch gathering, realizing that for watches to succeed in the costs of artwork and/or basic vehicles, the enterprise must be cleaned up. He even mentioned as a lot in a current article he wrote for The Telegraph, through which he known as out Rolex itself for its whole ineptitude concerning its Atelier de Restauration accepting fakes for restoration. I uncovered this situation only in the near past, and it’s simply the tip of the iceberg. Not eager to have double requirements, Tom has now agreed for me to publish the reality about these ‘Albino’ Daytonas.
Let’s reduce straight to the chase. Ref. 6263 ‘Albino’ Daytonas are NOT manufacturing facility unique Rolex watches. Essentially, they’re Frankenstein watches. Eric Clapton’s ‘Albino’, the primary instance to look available on the market, was a creation of Tom Bolt. The all-silver, monochromatic dial got here from a Rolex Pre-Daytona Ref. 6238 with a lacking bezel, which Tom had acquired within the late Nineties from a South American girl. Since the dial was marked ‘Rolex Oyster Cosmograph’ and lacked the standard 6238 tachymeter, Tom naturally assumed the watch should have had a Daytona tachymeter bezel. Featuring the magic phrase ‘Oyster’, it made sense to him that the dial could be finest fitted to a screw-down pusher Daytona.
So Tom selected a random Ref. 6263 with case quantity 2874334 he had in inventory, and despatched each watches to his watchmaker for the dial transplant. When the newly created ‘Albino’ got here again, Tom seen that his watchmaker had additionally transferred the blued 6238 palms. He was instructed that the Ref. 6263 Daytona palms didn’t match as a result of the recessed subdials have been considerably totally different.
Tom didn’t give it a lot thought, nonetheless satisfied, as a result of wording on the dial and its lack of a tachymeter, that the dial might solely have been supposed for a screw-down pusher Daytona. Besides, he was too busy eager about the suitable title for his new horological discover.
Tom ultimately bought the Watch to a Hedge fund Manager for round GBP 40,000, roughly thrice the worth of an equal normal Daytona, who in flip bought it to Eric Clapton at a basic automobile assembly. Just a few years later, Tom was visiting the Parma watch truthful when a long-standing Middle Eastern classic watch vendor based mostly in Italy who had seen the ‘Albino’ on Tom’s web site, winked at him, saying, “Loved the 6238 Daytona”, letting or not it’s identified that he additionally had bought a few ‘Albino’ 6238s whereas on his travels in South America a number of years earlier. Back then, South America was a veritable El Dorado for classic watches. This was the second it dawned on Tom that the dials have been, in reality, supposed for Ref. 6238 Pre-Daytonas, in all probability as service elements.
When the exact same Watch was bought at Sotheby’s in 2008 for roughly 10 instances the worth Tom had initially bought it for, after a second of remorse, he realised that one thing was going drastically mistaken with the classic watch market. Even although swapping dials, instances, and actions was widespread observe again then, maybe seeing the writing on the wall, Tom began to pay attention extra on the rising world of attention-grabbing up to date watches, reminiscent of Richard Mille, and so on.
So there you have got it, from the supply itself. I need to thank Tom Bolt for his honesty. In a current CBS Sunday Morning interview the place he known as himself ‘The Indiana Jones of Watches’—a hilarious nickname provided that he sources the vast majority of his heaps from sellers—Aurel Bacs boasted that there will probably be a 50-million-dollar watch sooner or later. A 50 million watch might have been a actuality way back if it weren’t for all of the fakery and skullduggery the enterprise is plagued with. For the high-end classic watch world to be cleaned up, to revive belief and attain the heights it might, it should take many extra folks to step ahead like Tom Bolt.
How can or not it’s that these ‘Albino’ dials are service dials for Ref. 6238 when the wording is ‘Rolex Oyster Cosmograph’? Well, actuality is usually stranger than fiction, as the next 1967 Rolex Daytona commercial demonstrates. It is unclear whether or not the depicted watch is a Daytona with a clean bezel or a Pre-Daytona with a Daytona dial.
The truth is, there aren’t any clearly specified service dials for Ref. 6238. Pre-Daytonas usually acquired a silver Rolex Oyster Cosmograph ‘Sigma’ dial throughout service. These dials, nevertheless, didn’t protect the signature all-silver, monochromatic look of the Pre-Daytona, however modified the look utterly.
Perhaps because of this, and to keep away from having to remanufacture discarded clichés that includes tachymeters, Rolex made a particular collection of ‘Albino’ dials with a up to date cliché as an alternative. The undeniable fact that common period-correct Daytona palms couldn’t match, and that every of the three identified examples includes a totally different set of subdial palms, tells the entire story.
Lot 340 – Rolex Daytona ‘Albino’ Ref. 6263, 2648447
The current watch’s ‘Albino’ dial is actual, little question. From a forensic perspective, what unveils this watch as an analogous third-party assemble as Eric Clapton’s ‘Albino’, is the truth that the assembler used nearly an identical palms, both from a Ref. 6238 or a really early Daytona with a black dial and silver subdials. In any case, these very skinny and tapered subdial palms had lengthy been discontinued when Ref. 6263 was launched in 1969, and the case variety of the current watch is from 1971.
Auction hyperlink: Lot 340 – Rolex Daytona ‘Albino’ Ref. 6263, 2648447 (sothebys.com)
The comparability beneath reveals that period-correct palms for silver subdials (proper) are significantly wider and straight (not tapered). All palms are an identical, whereas on the ‘Albino’, the seconds hand differs from 30-minute and 12-hour hand. The seconds hand could be very skinny and straight. When the current watch was produced, this hand set was lengthy discontinued.
The following comparability reveals the current watch subsequent to Eric Clapton’s ‘Albino’. While the subdial palms are very comparable, these on Eric Clapton’s ex-watch (proper) are barely shorter.
The photograph beneath from the guide Fero – 150 Steel Chronographs, reveals the current watch in a revealing perspective. The subdial palms seem to take a seat unnaturally excessive.
In the next comparability, it turns into evident that the 30-minute subdial hand on the current watch (left) sits barely greater above the subdial recess. On Eric Clapton’s ‘Albino’, the hand seems completely integrated. I perceive that the angle just isn’t the identical, however you get the concept. It appears like both the subdial palms or the pinions have been modified to have the ability to clear the subdial slope. Was this the explanation why Tom Bolt’s watchmaker had to make use of the Ref. 6238 subdial palms?
One factor I can partout not abdomen concerning the current watch, from each an aesthetic and originality viewpoint, are the patinated ‘Mille Righe’ (Italian for thousand traces) screw-down pushers, the place the plating is coming off, and the brass beneath is displaying. First of all, the sort of pusher just isn’t period-correct for the case quantity. These could be Ref. 6240 and early Ref. 6263 pushers, if they’re actual in any respect.
The entire ‘Mille Righe’ factor is a science in itself and would require a veritable dissertation to completely grasp the depth of the fakery concerned. Anyway, period-correct ‘Mille Righe’ pushers for the current watch would seem like those within the image beneath. They have been made from chrome steel, and the knurling was significantly deeper for a greater grip.
As talked about earlier, the current watch was revealed within the guide Fero – 150 Steel Chronographs by Paolo Gobbi. The motion and the within of the caseback, as proven within the guide, are in line with different items in shut case-number proximity. The current has an estimated worth of USD 500,000 – 1,000,000. It at all times amazes me when watches with such a price ticket usually are not offered in larger element within the catalogue. Generally, the images Sotheby’s has revealed lately are at all times terrible, unsharp, and too low in decision.
Thoughts
It is amusing to see how a few of these super-rare, top-of-the-range unicorns change into not factory-original watches. As with all the pieces in life, it’s only a matter of time till all of those myths are debunked. However, whereas it’s clear that the current watch didn’t depart the Rolex manufacturing facility in its present kind, the ‘Albino’ dials are kinda cool, I need to say. Given their rarity—solely three examples are identified right this moment—they definitely ought to have their area of interest and be valued accordingly. It is as much as collectors to find out whether or not a watch born this manner is value their whereas. As we will see with Space-Dweller dials or the well-known dial design proposals discovered within the Singer books, there’s a marketplace for this stuff. As lengthy as all the pieces is disclosed appropriately, there’s nothing to say towards it. At least now, with the newly revealed info, collectors could make a well-informed funding determination in terms of the ‘Albino’ Daytonas.
Thank you to your curiosity.
