The 24 Hours of LeMans Winners Take Home a Rolex

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This event was kicked off by none other than the President of Ferrari, John Elkann, and was sponsored of course by Rolex who has been sponsoring this race since 2001. Over the last almost century, car manufacturers like Audi, Porsche, Ford, Ferrari, Chevy, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Jaguar and Toyota have dropped millions of dollars on this race. With the current rules encouraging race teams to drive gasoline-electric hybrids and other hypercar classes, watching the 24 hours of LeMans race is always exciting (sometimes frightening) and totally fascinating to behold.  At the end of the 2021 grueling 24-hour race, it was determined that Toyota earned it’s 4th consecutive victory! Congrats to the likely very exhausted team!

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So what did the racers win? Money? Rolexes? While racing is cool and fun and thrilling, we are watch folk, so what we were most curious about was to find out what Rolex was given to the winner of this race. As far as prize money goes it was reported that “every classified driver is awarded 7,000 euros for marking their presence in the race whilst finishing first in every category sees the winning side get 10,000 euros. The winner of the race is meanwhile richer by 40,000 euros while second place takes home 25,000, third 20,000, fourth 15,000 and fifth 12,000 euros respectively.”

Image Courtesy of Copyright © Rolex/JVA Studios

In addition to the prize money, the winner also received a much cooler prize- an engraved Steel Rolex Daytona, Ref. #116500LN. In our humble opinion, that prize is worth so much more than the prize money as the Daytona is a total grail watch, and truly a worthy symbol of such an achievement. Retailing for just about 13k, and being sold in the gray market for upwards of 35K, the Rolex Daytona 116500 is one of the most sought out and desired Rolex watches of today.

Although the Daytona looks incredible just the way it is, it would be much more comfortable and lightweight on a strap. We love the Daytona LN on curved end rubber, or even more on perforated leather like the seats of a racecar. Let’s take a look at some awesome and winning looks for the Rolex Daytona and what Daytona wearers had to say about them.

Shown above: Curved End Rubber Strap for Rolex Daytona with tang buckle.

I'm quite pleased with my Daytona black rubber strap from Everest. The quality is evident, the fit is perfect, and the strap is pliable and comfortable. I've had other nice rubber straps on other watch brands, but this Everest rubber strap is better looking and better feeling than the others. Thank you. - Daniel B

Fantastic in every way. Product is virtually indistinguishable fro the rest of the factory Rolex watch. Fit was perfect the first time. Packaging and delivery were also perfect. What a great product sold by a fine organization. - Richard J