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A rainbow Rolex is a watch with a bezel of graduated coloured sapphires, arranged so each stone shifts one hue from the last and the full spectrum flows around the dial. Rolex has produced factory versions in tiny numbers under the RBOW reference suffix, all built on the Cosmograph Daytona. They never appear in the public catalogue, they are allocated by invitation only, and on the secondary market they trade for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
That leaves two realistic routes to owning one. Pay auction-level money for a factory piece, or commission a custom rainbow build on a genuine Rolex you already own or ask us to source. Our workshop has been setting rainbow sapphire bezels and dials on Daytona, GMT-Master II, Datejust and Day-Date references since long before the 2018 Everose model made the look famous. This guide covers every factory reference, what each trades for in 2026, and exactly how the custom route works.
What Is the Rolex Rainbow Daytona?
The Rainbow Daytona is a 40mm gem-set Cosmograph Daytona whose bezel carries 36 baguette-cut sapphires in a graduated rainbow sequence, with 56 brilliant-cut diamonds set into the lugs and crown guards. Each sapphire is flanked by two stones of a similar but not identical hue, so the colour flows from red through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet before returning to red. Rolex employs in-house gemologists who match the stones with spectrometers, which is why sourcing a single bezel's worth of gems can take months.
The lineage is longer than most buyers realise. Rolex built a one-off gem-set rainbow Daytona on the Zenith-based movement in the 1990s (reference 16599SAAEC), but the production story starts in 2012 with two references, followed by the model that ignited the market in 2018.
Every Factory Rainbow Daytona Reference
| Reference | Metal | Introduced | Hour markers | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 116598RBOW | 18ct yellow gold | 2012 | Diamond-set | Calibre 4130 |
| 116599RBOW | 18ct white gold | 2012 | Diamond-set | Calibre 4130 |
| 116595RBOW | 18ct Everose gold | 2018 | 11 baguette-cut sapphires | Calibre 4130 |
The yellow gold 116598RBOW and white gold 116599RBOW arrived quietly in 2012 with black lacquer dials and diamond hour markers. Reception at the time was mixed. The 116595RBOW, unveiled at Baselworld 2018 in Everose gold, changed everything: its 11 baguette-cut sapphire hour markers match the bezel gradient, and its subdials use a crystallised pink gold finish Rolex calls Gold Crystals. A pavé diamond dial variant followed. In 2022 the white and yellow gold references returned briefly with updated dials before the calibre 4130 Daytona platform was retired in 2023. Current-generation rainbow pieces on the calibre 4131 platform, such as the 126598RBOW, have since surfaced through dealers, which confirms Rolex still builds them for selected clients.
How Much Does a Rainbow Rolex Cost in 2026?
Factory pieces trade far above their original retail. Based on dealer listings and 2026 auction results, a standard black dial Everose 116595RBOW changes hands for roughly £370,000 to £480,000, while a yellow gold 116598RBOW sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong in April 2026 for HKD 2,432,000, around £230,000. Pavé dial and factory diamond-bracelet configurations command significantly more. Prices vary with condition, dial configuration and box and papers, so treat these as ranges rather than quotes.
The custom route is a different order of magnitude. A hand-set rainbow sapphire bezel from our workshop starts at £2,500 in yellow gold and £3,500 in rose gold, fitted to your own Daytona, with matching rainbow dials and full builds priced on specification. You supply the base watch or we source one, and the finished piece carries the same visual signature for a fraction of the factory premium. Full transparency applies in both directions: a custom rainbow build is aftermarket work on a genuine Rolex, and it will never carry the collector value of a factory RBOW reference. What it does carry is the look, on your wrist, this year, at a defined price.
Disclaimer: Past performance is not indicative of future results. Watches should not be considered a substitute for traditional financial investments. Always seek independent financial advice before making investment decisions.
Why You Cannot Buy a Rainbow Daytona at Retail
Rainbow Daytonas are off-catalogue Rolex watches. They are never listed on the Rolex website or displayed in boutiques; they are offered privately to a small circle of VIP clients, and even long-standing customers with substantial purchase histories rarely receive an allocation. Production numbers are minute because every bezel requires 36 colour-matched sapphires that pass Rolex's internal grading. There is no waiting list to join, because the watch is never publicly for sale in the first place.
This is precisely why the custom market for rainbow builds exists. When a design cannot be bought at any authorised dealer, the only alternatives are the auction room or the workshop.
Celebrities Who Wear the Rainbow Daytona
Mark Wahlberg owns at least two, in white gold and Everose, and wears them regularly on red carpets. Cristiano Ronaldo wears a yellow gold example fitted with a mother-of-pearl dial swapped from an earlier Daytona in his collection. John Mayer has been photographed in the white gold 116599RBOW, Kevin Hart wears the Everose version, and Post Malone wore a 116595RBOW on American television in 2019. The pattern is consistent: the rainbow Daytona has become the most visible signal of access in modern watch collecting, which feeds demand for both factory pieces and faithful custom versions.
Building a Custom Rainbow Rolex in Our London Workshop
Our gem-setters build rainbow bezels from natural, hand-picked baguette-cut sapphires, graded and ordered by colour to recreate the factory gradient, then set into a solid gold bezel base and fitted to your watch in-house. The work sits within our wider watch customisation service, and every replaced factory part is returned to you so the watch can be restored to standard specification at any time. For a full breakdown of methods, from diamond setting to DLC coating, read our guide to how to customise a Rolex.
Rainbow Bezels for the Daytona
The Daytona is the natural canvas because it is the model the factory rainbow was built on. We hold rainbow sapphire bezels for the Daytona in stock in both rose and yellow gold, priced with dismantling, fitting, assembly and testing included. Browse the full range in our Rolex bezels collection.
The rose gold version mirrors the Everose 116595RBOW gradient and is our most requested rainbow part.
In stock · UK
Custom Rose Gold Rainbow Bezel for Rolex Daytona
Fits Rolex Daytona
- SettingBaguette-cut sapphires, rainbow gradient
- BaseSolid rose gold
- Price£3,500 fitted
- Warranty12 months
If your Daytona is yellow gold, the same gradient works against the warmer case metal, following the look of the original 2012 reference 116598RBOW.
In stock · UK
Rolex Daytona Yellow Gold Rainbow Custom Bezel
Fits Rolex Daytona
- SettingBaguette-cut sapphires, rainbow gradient
- BaseSolid yellow gold
- Price£2,500 fitted
- Warranty12 months
Rainbow Dials and Full Builds
A bezel alone recreates most of the factory look, but the 116595RBOW pairs it with sapphire hour markers, and we build that too. Our workshop sets natural baguette-cut sapphires as hour markers on black, diamond-paved and coloured dials for the Daytona, Day-Date and Datejust; the full range of finishes is covered in our guide to the most popular custom Rolex dials, and matched dial and bezel sets such as our Daytona rainbow dial and bezel bundle can be commissioned as a single fitting.
Complete builds go further. Past commissions include a steel Daytona 116520 with rainbow bezel, gemstone-set black dial and diamond-set lugs, built as a stainless steel take on a configuration Rolex has never offered in that metal.
Sourcing · UK
Custom Diamond Set Rainbow Rolex Daytona 116520
Ref 116520
- Case40mm stainless steel, diamond-set lugs
- BezelWhite gold, rainbow baguette sapphires
- DialBlack with rainbow baguette markers
- MovementAutomatic calibre 4130
Beyond the Daytona: GMT-Master II, Datejust and Day-Date
The rainbow treatment is not limited to the chronograph. The GMT-Master II takes the gradient particularly well on its rotating bezel; our steel 116710LN build with rainbow bezel and diamond wave dial shows how far the concept stretches on a sports case. On dressier models, we have set rainbow bezels and matching gemstone dials on the Datejust 36 and 41, including a black DLC Datejust rainbow that pairs the gradient with a murdered-out case; several of those builds feature in our round-up of the top custom Datejust designs. Precious metal builds such as our Everose Daytona 116505 rainbow and white gold 116509 rainbow diamond set track the factory references metal for metal.
Factory RBOW vs Custom Rainbow: Which Route Makes Sense?
| Factory Rainbow Daytona | Custom rainbow build | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Invitation-only allocation or auction | Commissioned on demand |
| Typical cost | Roughly £230,000 to £480,000 and above | From £2,500 for a fitted bezel; full builds on specification |
| Gem setting | Rolex in-house, factory warranty | Natural sapphires, set in our London workshop, 24-month warranty on custom work |
| Resale | Strong collector premium | Valued as a customised watch, below factory equivalents |
| Design freedom | Fixed factory configurations | Any base model, metal, dial and stone layout |
| Lead time | Years, if ever | Days to weeks depending on complexity |
The honest framing: buy the factory watch if you are buying an asset and can access one. Commission the custom build if you are buying the design. Our guide to the pros and cons of watch customisation covers the resale question in detail, and if you later change direction we buy customised and factory pieces alike through our sell your watch service.
Every project starts with a genuine, authenticated Rolex, never a replica, and our in-house team includes watchmakers who previously worked at Rolex. Send us your base watch, or brief us on a full build through our bespoke watches workshop, and we will confirm stone specification, design renders and pricing before any work begins. More finished commissions, including the Eye of the Tiger and Cotton Candy builds, feature in our list of the most requested custom Rolex watches.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a Rainbow Rolex?
A factory Rainbow Daytona trades for roughly £230,000 to £480,000 in 2026 depending on reference and configuration, with pavé dial examples higher still. A custom rainbow bezel from Time 4 Diamonds starts at £2,500 fitted, and complete custom rainbow builds are priced on specification.
Is the Rolex Rainbow Daytona discontinued?
The calibre 4130 references (116598RBOW, 116599RBOW and 116595RBOW) ended production when Rolex retired that Daytona platform in 2023. Current-generation examples on the calibre 4131, such as the 126598RBOW, have appeared through dealers, so Rolex continues to build rainbow Daytonas in very small numbers for selected clients.
How many sapphires are on a Rainbow Daytona?
The bezel carries 36 baguette-cut sapphires in a graduated rainbow sequence. The Everose 116595RBOW adds 11 baguette-cut sapphire hour markers, and all three references carry 56 brilliant-cut diamonds on the lugs and crown guards.
Can you buy a Rainbow Daytona from Rolex directly?
Not through any public channel. The rainbow Daytona is an off-catalogue model offered privately to VIP clients, so there is no retail price list or waiting list. Buyers without an allocation purchase at auction or from the secondary market.
Is a custom rainbow Rolex a genuine Rolex?
Yes. Our builds start with an authenticated factory Rolex; the rainbow bezel or dial is an aftermarket part set with natural sapphires in our workshop, and all original components are returned to you. If you are buying a finished piece elsewhere, our guide on how to spot a fake Rolex explains the authentication checks that matter.
Which Rolex models can take a rainbow bezel?
The Daytona and GMT-Master II are the most common bases, and we also build rainbow settings for the Datejust 36 and 41, Datejust II, Day-Date 36 and 40 and the Yacht-Master. Any model with a suitable bezel diameter can be briefed; our Rolex dials collection covers matching rainbow hour marker dials.
How do I tell a factory Rainbow Daytona from a custom one?
Check the reference on the papers: factory pieces carry the RBOW suffix and matching Rolex documentation. Custom builds carry the standard base reference (for example 116505 or 116520) with the customiser's own paperwork. Reputable workshops, ours included, always disclose custom work in writing.
