Rolex

Cosmograph Daytona (Le Mans)

Name: Rolex Cosmograph Daytona (Le Mans)
Brand: Rolex
SKU: 126528LN
Availability: PreOrder

Ref. 126528LN

On requestSourced to order

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Case40mm 18k yellow gold

DialBlack

MovementCalibre 4132

ComplicationChronograph

BraceletYellow Gold Oyster

Year2026

PapersBox and Papers

The Cosmograph Daytona is the most sought after chronograph in the world, born at the racetrack in 1963 and waitlisted at every authorized dealer since. Its tachymeter bezel and tricompax dial define what a driver’s watch looks like.

This 2026 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona pairs a 40mm 18k yellow gold case with a black face and a chronograph. Calibre 4132 keeps it running.

Fun fact: The 126528LN is the yellow gold Daytona Rolex built for Le Mans, its bezel reading 24 instead of the usual tachymeter scale and its dial carrying the centenary logo. Around a thousand were made, all of them allocated before anyone saw one in a window.

Le Mans Daytona in yellow gold

Reference126528LN

Case40mm 18k yellow gold, black Cerachrom bezel

MovementRolex calibre 4132, chronograph, about 72 hours

IntroducedLe Mans Cosmograph from 2023, this yellow gold reference from 2024

Why this one matters

Rolex launched the Le Mans Cosmograph in 2023, in white gold, for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race it has timed since 2001. The yellow gold version followed in 2024 and took the white gold model's place. Two things separate it from a standard Daytona. The tachymetric scale on the black Cerachrom bezel is picked out with a red 100, and the counter at 9 o'clock runs to 24 hours rather than 12.

That second change is the reason for a new calibre number, and Rolex fitted a sapphire caseback, as on the platinum reference introduced in 2023. Rolex never catalogued this reference or listed it on its website, so it reached buyers outside the usual boutique channel. In yellow gold the watch reads warmer than the white gold execution.

The movement

Calibre 4132 is the 4131 with its hour counter re-engineered to run over 24 hours, which is why the register at 9 o'clock is graduated differently. Column wheel, vertical clutch, Chronergy escapement in paramagnetic nickel-phosphorus, blue Parachrom hairspring, Paraflex shock absorbers, roughly 72 hours from full wind, and a Superlative Chronometer rating of 2 seconds a day either way once cased.

On the wrist

The case is 40mm with short lugs, so the presence comes from the gold rather than the dimensions. Screw-down pushers mean the chronograph is not something you operate absent-mindedly. It reads as a chronograph first: black dial, counters that separate cleanly from it, no date to interrupt the layout. The display back adds a fraction of height you notice only when the cuff is tight.

Questions we are asked about this reference

How does it differ from a standard yellow gold Daytona?

Calibre 4132 in place of 4131, a 24-hour counter at 9 o'clock instead of a 12-hour counter, the red 100 on the bezel and a sapphire caseback. Case size and bezel material are shared. The dial differs too, with squared markers in the counters.

Is the 24-hour counter actually useful?

For timing anything that runs longer than half a day, yes, which is the point of the reference. In daily use it totalises exactly as a 12-hour register does, you simply read a full day off it before it wraps.

Does the display back reduce water resistance?

The Daytona case is rated to 100 metres. It is a chronograph for the wrist, not a dive watch, and the pushers should only be worked when they are unscrewed and dry.

Cosmograph Daytona

Rolex's chronograph, named for Daytona Beach and read against a tachymetric scale

Rolex introduced the Cosmograph in 1963 and named it for Daytona Beach in Florida, laying it out as a driver's instrument with three counters and a tachymetric scale on the bezel for reading average speed over a measured distance. Screw down pushers arrived on reference 6240 in 1965, sealing the chronograph into the Oyster case. The movement went from hand wound to an automatic based on the Zenith El Primero in 1988, to Rolex's own calibre 4130 in 2000 and the calibre 4131 in 2023. The case grew from 37 mm on the first series to 40 mm with that 1988 generation and has stayed there since, in steel, gold and platinum.

tachymetric scale on the bezel

three counters at 3, 6 and 9

screw down pushers

no date window

Sizes in the family

40 mm across the current line, 37 mm on the first series references

Who it suits

For a buyer who wants a chronograph rather than a dress watch, and who is choosing on metal rather than on case size.

See every Cosmograph Daytona we have