Rolex Daytona 'Zenith' Ref. 16520 (steel)
- Maker
- Rolex
- Year
- 1988-2000
- Rank
- 7 of 100
Rolex Daytona 'Zenith' Ref. 16520 (steel)
Rolex Daytona 'Zenith' Ref. 16520 (steel) by Rolex (1988-2000) is ranked 7 in the FLOAT 100 for Watches. It carried a market asking price of $28,000 in June 2026, which is not a sale. The first automatic Daytona and the bridge between vintage and modern — a transitional reference with a cult following.
What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?
The first automatic Daytona and the bridge between vintage and modern — a transitional reference with a cult following.
Ref. 16520, steel, automatic Zenith El Primero-based cal. 4030
What is the best-sourced number for it?
- Figure
- $28,000
- Kind
- Market asking price, not a sale
- Date
- June 2026
Standard black/white-dial Zenith 16520 trades ~$26K-$30K on Chrono24; special-dial variants (Patrizzi, inverted-6, floating) run higher.
This is not a sale. It is what the market was asking, and no transaction is recorded behind it. Source.
How this is made
- The figure
- One reference price, taken from a named public source and shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- Why no grade ladder
- Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
- Archive
- 2026-08-08