Hands-OnThe Rolex "Alcaraz" Daytona With Turquoise Lacquer Dial ref. 126518LN – Yet Another Watch I Wish I Could Pull Off

It's been a blockbuster year for Daytona references. In addition to the six watches shown below, there have been several cool off-catalog pieces the last few years, like another silly, albeit apt, nickname—the "Barbie" Daytona—and an obsidian-dialed beauty with sapphires. This is our third Daytona hands-on in as many months so I won't belabor the specs or historical precedent as much. Instead, I'd like to muse for a minute about what makes a good nickname.

For me, a good nickname isn't forced. Paul Newman, John Mayer, and Jean-Claude Killy—all have become great nicknames for Rolex watches, not because of someone looking for a carbonated drink reference to pair with the others, or because it's the alter ego of a fictional superhero that's already used for a nickname on a different watch. A good nickname should be as obvious as it is genuine.

After watching Carlos Alcaraz win Roland Garros (the French Open, for those not following official naming conventions), I immediately spotted the bright dial of the new Rolex Daytona ref. 126518LN on his wrist. It felt like a perfect watch—bold, bright, summery—that matched the fun attitude of a young Spaniard who decided to celebrate his win with the ball kids. People have already tried the "Turquoise" or the "Tiffany" Daytona, but by the time he was in the finals at Wimbledon two weekends ago, to me, it was already "the Alcaraz."

The framework for this new variation is essentially the same as all other precious metal Oysterflex Daytonas. As with all Daytonas featuring the current Rolex caliber 4131 automatic movement that have a Cerachrom bezel, the new "Alcaraz" model features a metal ring around that bezel. In this case, the ring is made of yellow gold, with numerals on the bezel in the same color, rendered using Particle Vapor Deposition. But the ring isn't purely aesthetic. Instead, it's a part of the monobloc construction of the Cerachrom bezel, which also secures the sapphire crystal in place for watertightness. 

The difference is very obviously the lacquered turquoise blue dial with black subdials featuring outer snailing (where the subdial markers are printed) and sunburst inner sections. The surrounds of these are also in yellow gold, as are the new, slightly fatter, Chromalight-filled hour markers. The black subdials combined with punchy color remind me a bit of Tudor's Pink Chrono, making me wonder if this is a new design language for the group.

The watch isn't without precedent. In 2002, Rolex introduced a series of bright colors called the "Daytona Beach" series. It's been a guilty pleasure series for me—completely unlike what I'd wear, but fun to imagine myself being a "Daytona Beach" dude. In the same way that the new 126518LN doesn't use actual turquoise for the dial, neither does the ref. 116519, featuring a turquoise-colored chrysoprase dial set with applied white gold numerals, in a white gold case.

Carlos Alcaraz can tell you that there's a benefit to having the traditional solid caseback you (until recently) could nearly always find on a Rolex. In a reel posted to Instagram about three weeks ago, Alcaraz told GQ Sports that he received his watch as a gift in honor of his win at Roland Garros in 2024, with a caseback engraving to that effect. He said he got it last year, which would be quite surprising, as Rolex has rarely publicly allowed their testimonies early access to watches. In the recent case of Roger Federer, he was only seen wearing the new "Land-Dweller" shortly before its release. Alcaraz was not spotted wearing this Daytona until Roland Garros this year, which means that if he did get the watch last year, he did a good job keeping it under wraps.

I think there's a time and place for a display caseback. It seems to work best on both ends of the bell curve of pricing and complexity. Display casebacks on affordable watches (like "open heart" displays) are great at getting early collectors excited about mechanical watchmaking, though they don't showcase the best finishing or complexity. High-end watches that showcase hand-finishing or intricate work. On a Rolex, you have one of the best industrially made products in the world, but, with the rare exception, like the Land-Dweller, it doesn't need to prove anything with an open caseback. Give me something to engrave, and we can move on.

The proportions remain well-balanced, with a 40mm diameter and a 11.4mm thickness, and a 47.5mm lug-to-lug distance. The watch features a 72-hour power reserve and an accuracy of ±2 seconds per day. The bracelet, with its inner metal structure, is not designed to be cut. Instead, it comes in six lengths per side, plus the 5mm Glidelock adjustment. The rubber bracelet features fins on the inside to encourage airflow and keep the watch from getting too sticky on a sweaty wrist. It's no wonder that it's the perfect choice for Alcaraz (and Jannik Sinner) to wear after their matches.

The black subdials are a strange design. They're eye-catching, bold, and I would guess that's the point. Also, thanks to the "turquoise" colored dial, I was reminded that the "Daytona" logo is always in red, a fact that blends in more (for better or worse) with most other dials.

As a complete package, this might be the most eye-catching in-catalog Daytona that the brand has made in a long time. These kinds of "loud for the sake of loud" treatments aren't something Rolex shies away from—and I'm thankful for that—but you usually don't get something so bold in-catalog or without gemsetting. At $37,400, it's also a bold price, but one that customers will likely be more than happy to pay for such an unusually bold in-catalog release. It's also worth noting that yellow gold is the most affordable material that Rolex offers for Oysterflex Daytonas, at $1,900 cheaper than the white gold or Everose versions. Finally, sources have informed me that, although this will be more challenging to obtain than standard dials, it will still be significantly easier to acquire than Meteorite allocations.

Audemars Piguet has a Royal Oak with a natural turquoise dial, so the obvious question is: why wouldn't Rolex just go all the way and do a turquoise stone dial? After all, the mid-2010s had a number of fully crazy Daytonas with gems and, yes, stone dials like sodalite or the beautiful grossular garnet rubellite dial shown below. Well, you're in luck, because Rolex has that covered too.

While in London a few weeks ago, our very own Tim Jeffreys got to see an off-catalog version of the new Oysterflex Daytona. But the ref. 126538TBR features a turquoise stone dial, diamond baguette hour markers, a baguette-set case, and diamond-coated lugs. I have this thing about just enjoying getting to experience rarities in person. It's one of the perks of the job. It would have been incredibly interesting to compare the two watches (in and out of catalog) in person.

If I'm unsure about pulling off the in-catalog 126518LN, there's no way the off-catalog watch is for me. But maybe because of that, these are the kind of watches I love to look at and write about. In a way, it reminds me of the pink Tudor Chrono for more reasons than just the black subdials or the slight homage to those Daytona Beach models I now, not-so-secretly, enjoy. Part of why I like them is that they're not watches I would ever seriously consider adding to my collection. Instead, I can just enjoy them from afar, in brief spurts, or on the wrist of one of tennis's young greats.

For more information, visit Rolex.