Daytona Panda (Ceramic, 2016-2023)

The white-dial 116500LN is the steel Daytona Rolex introduced in 2016 with a black ceramic bezel. It is an automatic watch with a stopwatch function, built around a design that had been associated with motor racing since the 1960s.

The black ring changes the watch more than the short specification suggests. On the preceding 116520, the polished steel bezel continued the color of the case. Here it frames the white dial sharply. Black rings around the three small displays repeat that contrast inside the face.

Those displays do different jobs. The small hand at six runs continuously as the watch's ordinary seconds hand. The other two count elapsed minutes and hours when the chronograph is running. The long central seconds hand also belongs to the chronograph; it can be started, stopped and returned to zero with the pushers beside the crown.

Around the outside, the tachymeter scale converts a timed journey over a known distance into an average speed.

Inside the 40-millimeter case is calibre 4130, the same Rolex-made automatic chronograph movement used in the steel-bezel generation. The ceramic update did not bring a new mechanism. The movement has roughly 72 hours of reserve and a vertical clutch to engage the stopwatch function.

There is a small inconvenience in the construction: the chronograph pushers must be unscrewed before use. Their screw-down collars are part of the watch's water-resistant design, not an aid to spontaneous timing.

The reference was followed by the 126500LN in 2023. The white 116500LN remains a particularly clear expression of the earlier design, with its strong black border and relatively heavy counter rings. It is a crowded dial made legible through contrast rather than empty space.