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Sometimes there’s just one thing more annoying than hype — hype that’s deserved. Many superb chronograph watches have come and gone since the renaissance of luxury watchmaking began in the 1980s (with the Grand Seiko SBGC001 giving the Daytona a run for its money), but the emphasis in this instance should be on the word “gone.” Sure, famed model names and core aesthetic codes might have stuck around from many of those revered collections, but the watches around them have often changed massively in size, proportion, status, and positioning. Nevertheless, every once in a while, a company gets to operate in the long run at the helm of people so risk-averse respectful of tradition that its products get to exist virtually unchanged and unmolested not just for years, but decades, and this gives said company an advantage impossible to quickly imitate. The Rolex Daytona has looked largely unchanged since 1988 — that’s 34 years, and counting. During that time, its design got wired into the public’s collective mind in all sorts of ways, associated with great achievements (at various motor races or in one’s personal life), high-profile events like Formula 1^®, and all the rest of it… But that’s not what makes the Daytona special on an ordinary Tuesday morning. Over the time it’s spent under the providence of Rolex, every small and large detail has slowly come together into a singular whole that gives off a sense of status, timelessness, and a sensation of it being “the real thing.” That’s what 34 years of repetition can do. And that’s true whether one likes the watch, or not.