Unveiling Deception: The Rolex Albino Daytona
A brief history of the Rolex 6263 Albino Daytona, and busting fakes with Eric Ku
On May 13 2008, Ben Clymer shared his first post on www.hodinkee.com - and here we are, nearly 16 years later, discussing the same watch. It is for good reason too, so let’s dig in!
Before we begin, let’s do a little recap on Clapton for completeness. Eric Clapton is a pretty legendary guy. He is recognised as one of the most accomplished and influential guitarists in the history of rock music, and holds prominent positions in various rankings, including second on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list and fourth on Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.” Rolling Stone ranked him 35th in 2023.
Of course, we aren’t discussing Clapton because of his music. Clapton undeniably possesses refined taste, evident not only in his music but in his personal interests too. As an enthusiast of cars, particularly Ferraris, and a collector of vintage watches, Clapton exhibits a discerning eye for quality and rarity. Clapton’s interest in horology appears to extend beyond mere appreciation; at this point it is probably not hyperbolic to say he is widely regarded as one of the most discerning and influential watch collectors of our time.
One could probably fill a book discussing his collection, but we will focus on his ownership of the Rolex Albino Daytona. It is believed that Eric Clapton acquired his Albino Daytona in the 1990s. It then popped up at a Christie’s auction in 2003, and sold for $50,190.
Next, it was seen again at Sotheby’s in 2008, where the listing specifically referenced it being the same watch from the aforementioned Christie’s auction; Here, it broke the previous world record for a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona by selling for $505,000. This was ~5x its pre-auction estimate, and supposedly the second highest dollar amount ever paid for a Rolex at the time.
After that, it resurfaced again at Phillips in 2015, selling for 1,325,000 CHF which, at the time, was equivalent to $1,422,6661 and a record for any Rolex sold at auction.
The listing describes the watch as follows (emphasis mine):
The present Rolex reference 6263 is one of only four known examples of white dialled Cosmographs where the subsidiary dials are not in black with white printing but in the same silver finish as the dial plate. The visual impact is striking and the more a specialist’s eye is trained to see Rolex Daytonas the more he (or she) will believe that they are victims of an optical illusion. It comes as no surprise that the market and scholars have named the all-white Cosmographs “Albino”.
This highly unusual reference 6263 dates to 1971 and has its correct calibre 727 movement but also the correct MK1 pushers and bezel for the period.
The earliest years of this watch are unknown, but it is understood that Eric Clapton purchased the watch in the late 1990s. It was then auctioned at Christie’s New York on the 5th of June 2003, as property from the Collection of Eric Clapton. A few years later, at Sotheby’s New York, it smashed the previous world record for any Rolex Cosmographs when selling for 505,000 USD, five times its presale auction estimate.
Now, this Albino Rolex is obviously exceedingly rare, and is credited by many for being the catalyst for the vintage Rolex boom which followed.
But, it was the Clapton Albino Daytona that, to many, really ushered in the modern era of mega vintage Rolex collecting, immediately following Antiquorum's enormously successful “Rolex Revolution” sale.
Ben Clymer
As a side note, check out this old post from Paul Boutros, which offers an in-depth preview into the Rolex Revolution auction Ben Clymer mentioned in the quote above.
Anyway, notice the Phillips listing notes the Clapton Albino 6263 as being one of four in 2015. The first is the model sold by Clapton, the second was found in 2008 and the third was found in 2013 by Eric Ku. Here’s an excerpt from another old piece by Ben Clymer:
Talking to Eric, I find out the watch came from the Middle East and while he can't be sure if it came from the original owner, he does know it is an absolutely new to market watch. The serial number of this watch is, as one would expect, very close to that of Clapton's, and he makes a point of saying that this is not a prototype dial that came from a book, unsigned and without feet. This is a production dial for a production watch, that just happens to be almost impossibly rare.
When I ask Ku where he'd rank the Albino in terms of the rarest vintage Rolex sport watches out here, he says it's absolutely at the top of the list, along with things like this gold Oyster Paul Newman that just sold for over $800,000, the white dial Explorer (which, incidentally, Eric bought for a client), and the oft-mentioned but rarely seen white-dial GMT-Master. This watch is RARE. And really, really valuable.
I am not sure where the fourth 6263 Albino was discovered, but it must have been found between 2013 and 2015, by which time Phillips had noted the Clapton piece was one of four, and not three as the Clymer article stated two years earlier.
The thing about these rare vintage Rolex watches, is they rely heavily on validation to be considered valuable. Many will ‘discover’ rare or unseen Rolex watches, but authenticity will never be fully confirmed until it is acknowledged by recognised experts in the field. Given the sums of money involved, it is not a surprise that many have tried to dupe people into buying fake watches, as Perezcope has revealed over the years.
Which brings me to the main purpose of this post. A fresh, new-to-market Albino 6263 has recently surfaced for sale in the USA, and it has been offered around to multiple parties. Turns out, this watch is fake; but it happens to be a really good fake.
This is the fake watch, and according to vintage watch expert Eric Ku, 99% of people would never be able to tell it is fake. As mentioned earlier, Eric found the third Albino in the world, and has had time to study and evaluate a genuine example.
Notice the weird texture of the subdial, and the printing is very close, but lacks the series of a genuine Rolex dial… and the fonts are all slightly wrong. For instance, look at the 3 and compare to a genuine dial; you’ll see the “middle stick” shouldn’t be totally even, and it lacks the serifs.
Eric Ku
Eric explained how much effort these criminals have put into replicating the Albino dial. It appears they have taken a genuine silver dial, masked the surface and used an airbrush to paint the subdials silver. They then printed the markings on top, but upon closer inspection, the subdial print is slightly off. Here’s the kicker: Eric also discovered a specific error which was NOT present on the fake, but which happens to be a known error which is consistent across all other Albinos which we are aware of. The two watches below are genuine Albino 6263’s:
The error you would expect to find is located at 6:00. Essentially, the luminous dot at 6:00 and the 6:00 subdial hash marking, are not properly aligned on all genuine Albinos. Here’s a closer look at a couple of genuine dials:
And here we have a fake dial to compare:
As you can see… the fake one is perfectly aligned, and so, all their efforts to dupe people were thankfully, in vain.
There is a little more to this story which can’t be shared just yet, but hopefully this will come to light in due course. Until then, hopefully this watch ends up where it belongs… in the bin!
Special thanks to Eric Ku for sharing his knowledge, intel and images for this post!
Update December 2025 from Perezcope: Not Quite Whiter Than White – The Reality of the Rare Rolex ‘Albino’ Daytona Ref. 6263
Fascinating 😮
Like a movie cliffhanger that ending...awesome stuff!