Why This Rolex Sold For $5.2 Million ('The King' Rolex Daytona 6270)

On October 21, 2025, Sotheby’s sold a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 6270 for $5,230,100. Only eight examples of the 6270 are known, and Sotheby’s itself led with the nickname collectors use for the reference: “The King.”

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

Five million dollars is a lot of money for any watch, but the number matters here because it reflects something specific. The ref. 6270 isn’t just a rare Daytona with stones on it. It’s really the starting point for a whole category of Rolex collecting: the factory gem-set and otherwise rare Daytonas that now sit at the top of the brand’s modern status ladder.

Sotheby’s also leaned into the ownership mythology that follows this reference around. In its lot text, the auction house wrote: “Examples are known to have passed through the hands of mega-collector and dealer Alfredo Paramico, and current owners include both Jay-Z and John Mayer.” It’s worth quoting because it explains how desirable the reference is among the most knowledgeable collectors with the most access.

What the Rolex 6270 Actually Is

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

The ref. 6270 is a four-digit, manual-wind Daytona powered by Rolex’s caliber 727. Sotheby’s describes the watch with a pavé-set diamond dial, a baguette-cut diamond bezel, and sapphire hour markers. The caseback is stamped “6263” internally, and the watch is fitted to a yellow gold riveted Rolex Oyster bracelet.

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

The 6270 is likely the first gem-set Rolex Daytona, and the first Rolex with both a baguette-cut diamond bezel and a pavé-set diamond dial. The 6270’s close sibling, the ref. 6269, came out around the same time: also a manual-wind Daytona with a pavé dial, just without the gem-set bezel. Sotheby’s notes that around 30 examples of the 6269 are believed to exist, compared to eight known 6270s. If you’re trying to explain why collectors treat the 6270 as the peak expression of the early gem-set Daytonas, that rarity gap is the cleanest way to do it.

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

A big part of the appeal, at least for me, is that this watch still looks and feels like a vintage Rolex. Four-digit Daytonas have proportions I’ve always liked, and covered in stones, this reference has a handmade charm that modern gem-set pieces simply don’t have. On examples like the one Sotheby’s sold, the gold has developed a slightly softened, oxidized tone with age. The rivet Oyster bracelet adds to that. It’s one of those details that instantly places the watch in a specific era of Rolex manufacturing and gives it a kind of warmth that’s hard to replicate today.

The Sultan of Oman and the Khanjar

Rolex Daytona ref. 6265 with khanjar dial. Image Source: Revolution Watch

This particular 6270 was commissioned in the early 1980s by Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, and Sotheby’s says it was retailed through Asprey in London.

Oman-commissioned Rolex watches are a category of their own in vintage collecting. For decades, watches were ordered for state gifting and presented to people in the Sultan’s orbit, including military and diplomatic figures. The most recognizable marker is the Omani khanjar, the national emblem that appears on many dials and casebacks.

Rolex Daytona 6270 caseback. Image Source: Sotheby's

What’s important in this story is that the ref. 6270 doesn’t seem to display that emblem anywhere. No khanjar on the dial, no khanjar on the caseback that you can point to in a photo. That changes how the provenance functions. Many Oman pieces wear their origin story on their face. This one does not. So, the Omani provenance certainly adds weight, but perhaps not as much as if it displayed a khanjar. Provenance is not the only pillar holding up the price here.

The Seed of Modern Factory Gem-Set Rolex

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

The simplest way to describe why the 6270 matters is that it proved Rolex could turn the Daytona into a high-jewelry object. Collectors are used to thinking of the Daytona as a racing chronograph first, with all the mythology that comes with that. The ref. 6270 sits outside that lane. It’s a Daytona, but it’s also an early example of Rolex treating the model as a platform for extreme gem-setting and scarcity.

Rolex Daytona 16599SAAEC. Image Source: Revolution Watch

You can draw a fairly straight line from here to the modern “Rainbow” era. The first Rainbow Daytona, the ref. 16599SAAEC, came in 1994, almost two decades before Rolex formally introduced the now-iconic Rainbow Daytona line.

Rolex 'Rainbow' Daytonas 116595RBOW and 116599RBOW (left to right). Image Source: Wrist Aficionado

Then, in 2012, Rolex released the Rainbow Daytona in yellow and white gold, and it quickly became a cult-status piece precisely because it combined factory gem-setting with an already unobtainable model line. The model was updated in Everose gold in 2018, and continued to dominate the hype-sphere during the all-time watch market highs of 2020–2022.

The ref. 6270 isn’t a Rainbow Daytona, but the Rainbow Daytona may have never existed without it. It proved that a factory-set Daytona could be an upper-echelon object, the kind of thing enthusiasts consider among the most collectible Rolexes.

Why the Market Pays This Price in 2026

Rolex Daytona 6270. Image Source: Sotheby's

If you strip away the headlines and the provenance, this is still a one-of-eight, factory gem-set, manual-wind Daytona with a design language Rolex would repeatedly revisit decades later. That’s the core of the valuation as I see it.

The other piece is that the modern Rolex market is mature enough to reward “firsts,” especially when a first is also genuinely rare. Collectors don’t just want the modern expression of an idea. They want the watch where the idea shows up early, in a form that Rolex never repeated at scale. That’s why the first Rainbow Daytona, the aforementioned 16599SAAEC, sold for $6.3 million.

That’s what this was. It’s not the kind of watch most people will ever own, and it’s not the kind of watch I personally aspire to own. But as a piece of Rolex history, it’s easy to understand why the market treated it as a landmark. It isn’t just expensive. It isn’t just rare. It’s foundational.