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The Top 5 Rolex References From Iconic Movies: The Rolex Daytona ref. 16528 from The Wolf Of Wall Street
We all know just how much a watch can say about a person.
Particularly men, for whom a wristwatch might be the only piece of wearable jewelry, their choice tells us many things about personality, taste, accomplishments, aspirations.
The best movie directors know this and use it to their advantage, allowing a timepiece to do a serious amount of character development work for them instead of trying to display it in more overt and less subtle ways through action or dialogue.
Very few directors do it better than Martin Scorsese, and even he has rarely used the technique more effectively than in that ode to everything wrong with the financial sector, The Wolf of Wall Street.
The Genius of Scorsese
Released in 2013, Scorsese’s 23rd feature film tells the somewhat true story of Jordan Belfort, a young, ambitious stockbroker who accrues enormous wealth and power by defrauding investors through pump-and-dump schemes at his brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont. A dark comedy and biting satire on the dangers of greed, excess and the moral vacuum of Wall Street, Belfort’s empire of corruption is eventually, and inevitably, brought down through a combination of unbridled hedonism, blatant criminality and dogged federal investigations.
In keeping with the subject matter at hand, The Wolf of Wall Street is populated by the sort of untrustworthy and unsavory characters from whom you would not buy so much as a bag of apples, let alone trust with your life savings.
Other than Belfort himself, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the most memorable scenes all seem to concern his right hand man, Donnie Azoff, played in an Oscar-nominated turn by the multifaceted Jonah Hill.
Based on Belfort’s real-life business partner at Stratton Oakmont, Danny Porush, Azoff is a childlike figure, as bizarre, flamboyant and unpredictable as he is crude and impulsive. In his first scene, we see Azoff abruptly quit his job to join Belfort after discovering how much money he earns, setting the tone for his unhinged behavior. After that, he remains loyal almost to a fault as the pair spiral into evermore outrageous, drug-fueled shenanigans before ultimately cracking under FBI pressure and betraying his friend to save himself.
As well as his Oscar nomination, Hill received widespread critical acclaim for his performance as Azoff and reportedly was so keen to work with Scorsese he accepted the minimum SAG wage of just $60,000 for the role.
What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?
It should be obvious that, in a movie set in the 1980s about corrupt Wall Street D-bags, costume was always going to be key. For those who weren’t alive at the time, it is tricky to explain what we were wearing in the ‘80s. And it’s even harder to explain why.
This was the ‘more is more’ decade, when all sense of subtlety and restraint were discarded and bold unapologetic excess was the order of the day. Businessmen began ‘power dressing’, with bright colors and oversized silhouettes, shoulder padded suits, red suspenders and pinstriped everything. When they weren’t in masters of the universe mode, they could be found sporting the full preppy look; polo collars popped, khakis pressed and loafers polished. It was, and you can take my word for it, bloody awful.
The Wolf of Wall Street nails it all, as it does every other detail. And nowhere more so than in the watch department. The timepieces used throughout the movie are a perfect representation of another aspect of exactly what luxury watches can say about us; they show a person’s journey.
If we take those worn by DiCaprio’s main character as an example, when we see him first, Belfort is a 22-year old man just starting out. Look closely and you’ll spot the Seiko Solar on his wrist. A little later, as circumstances force him to open his own firm and the money starts rolling in, he upgrades to a gold plated TAG Heuer 1000 Professional. In an understatedly brilliant moment which speaks volumes, Belfort yells from his desk that he’s wearing a $20,000 watch. He is, of course, doing nothing of the sort. The TAG 1000 cost about $1k at the time, and so we see the beginnings of not only his dishonesty but also the inherent shallowness of his character.
After that, when Belfort has robbed yet more people of their hard earned money, he can afford the real thing and goes for the TAG Heuer 2000 WN5141, a full 18k gold model with diamond set bezel and indexes (it’s worth noting that DiCaprio was a TAG ambassador at the time, and still is!)
But what about Azoff? As evidence that even the worst sort of person can have at least one redeeming feature, Hill’s character opts for a yellow gold Rolex Daytona.
Authentic to the era, this would be a ref. 16528, a Zenith El Primero-powered reference with black dial and gold totalizer rims. It is a beautiful piece, admittedly showy but with at least the underpinnings of classically good taste. Of course, much of that is lost when it’s paired, as Azoff does in one infamous scene, with white Gucci loafers, shorts, socks, a hideously striped shirt and a peach-colored sweater tied round his shoulders (seriously, the ‘80s were horrific!)
The Zenith Daytonas
Where would we be without Rolex’s second generation Daytona?
This is the watch credited with both saving the Cosmograph itself after a quarter century of lackluster sales, and kickstarting the entire watch collecting phenomenon.
Released in 1988, it became one of the first major automatically winding mechanical chronographs ever made, driven as it was by Zenith’s magnificent El Primero movement. Well, sort of. The caliber Zenith delivered to Rolex after the two manufactures signed one of the most lucrative collaboration contracts in horology history was very different to the one which was finally installed into the Daytona. Rolex’s engineers stripped it back virtually to the mainplate and modified or replaced more than 50% of its components. The beat rate was reduced from 36,000vph to Rolex’s accepted 28,800vph. The brand’s in-house escapement and balance wheel were preferred and the chronograph mechanism was heavily revised, with upgraded clutch and reset functions. The date was removed entirely, the regulation system was changed and better lubricants were included.
The end result was christened the Cal. 4030 and it completely revised the fortunes of the Daytona which suddenly found itself the watch de jour. When Rolex found themselves unable (or unwilling) to meet public demand, fearsome waiting lists developed, and those not prepared to postpone started digging out those ill-fated first generation models. And so, an entire industry was born.
The second iteration might only have been around for 12-years or so, with Rolex developing their own domestic engine in 2000, but today the so-called Zenith Daytonas represent the gateway into ownership.
The Rolesor models, the ref. 16523, start at around $15,000—and you won’t find a cheaper Cosmograph than that—while the full steel references, the ref. 16520, kick off at the $20,000 mark. But what about Azoff’s look? A quick check sees a black dialed ref. 16528 will set you back around $32,000 at a minimum, which is still the least you can expect to pay for any of the watch’s 18k yellow gold incarnations.
However, if you’ve been reading the other articles in this series, you will know that these famous movie watches sometimes get sold off in movie-focused auctions. Marlon Brando’s GMT-Master from Apocalypse Now went for nearly $2m, for instance.
What are the chances of perhaps seeing Jonah Hill’s Daytona on the block in the near future? Well, zero actually. Much like the person he portrayed, the watch Hill wore was a big, fat phony.
It is standard procedure to give actors prop or fake watches for the duration of filming, as it is an easy way to save many thousands of dollars in the budget. And that is, indeed, what happened in this case. It looked real enough to fool viewers, but in reality, it was all a lie. And if that isn’t a fitting metaphor for Stratton Oakmont, I don’t know what is.
Featured Photo: Art by Oriol Mendivil for BKT Archive.
