Hello all, I am looking at a Daytona Cosmograph that I am hoping to trade several watches for and after reviewing the Vintage Rolex Field Guide, I am finding several inconsistencies on this watch. . The Serial Number is L465284 which I believe dates from 1990, but according to the Field Guide it should not have the "officially certified chronometer" on the dial. The Model Number is 16523 which would date from 1991 to 1999, which is later than the L Serial Number. I am not sure if this is considered a intermediate watch or is a service dial. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Also I have searched sold watches on eBay to get an idea on value and there are not any examples from this year. I am guessing around $13,500 for a value, and would really appreciate any insight on value. Thank you @morningtundra for your amazing book. @Dan S please chime in if you are able, your advice has been invaluable in the past.
I'm not particularly familiar with this reference, but in general one should see tritium dials (T SWISS MADE T) until about 1999. So if this is an L-serial, the dial and hands are apparently luminova service replacements. I don't think it's a problem to have a 16523 with an L-serial. But the dial is later.
Sources vary, but I think the 16523 came out in 1988, and an L serial would likely date this one to 1989. All the ones I've seen from this era have "Officially Certified" on the dial. As @Dan S said, the dial is a service replacement. I believe $17k--$20k is a more realistic estimate of what these are selling for.
R serial number is 1988, L serial number is 89/90. The correct dials for 88/89 period included a scarce 5 line "floating" cosmograph dial with "superlative/officially" noted; and a rarer "4 liner" dial which had no "officially certified" marking. Correct dials fro this timeframe also had a "inverted 6" in the hour register twhich appears as a 9 on the dial. The lack of the inverted 6 and "swiss made" marking indicate either a service dial as Dan S correctly indicated or a later date replacement. The four line dials seem to have been recently caught the eye of collectors and are starting to climb in value.
From what I am reading online, the service dial reduces the value of the watch. Can anyone venture a guess on how much the service dial would reduce the value from the $17,000 to $20,000 estimated above? Would the service dial make the watch not worth considering for purchase?
Ok, not the best photos (iPhone 8) but these 16523's are from the book "Rolex 3,621 Wristwatches" by Kesaharu Imai. Your's is a bit earlier than both these...