Curated · Authenticated · Pre-owned
Panda
Panda is what collectors call a white chronograph dial with black sub-dials, after the obvious resemblance. On a modern Rolex that means the 116500LN and its successor the 126500LN — 40mm Oystersteel Daytona with a black Cerachrom bezel. The white-dial Daytona has been the harder of the two dial colours to buy since the ceramic bezel arrived in 2016, and the gap between white and black has never really closed.
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Pre-owned Rolex Panda Daytona
Panda describes a Daytona with a white dial and black sub-dials — the contrast that gives it the name. In current production that means the 116500LN, the first steel Daytona with a Cerachrom bezel, and the 126500LN that replaced it in 2023.
Both were also sold with black dials and white sub-dials, sometimes called the reverse panda, so the reference alone does not tell you which one you are looking at. The dial does.
The ceramic-bezel steel Daytona
The 116500LN arrived in 2016 and did something the steel Daytona had not done before: it put a black Cerachrom bezel on an Oystersteel case, replacing the engraved steel bezel of the 116520. The 126500LN succeeded it in 2023 with a slightly reworked case, a wider bezel opening and an updated chronograph movement. Externally they are close enough that most people cannot tell them apart at a glance.
Panda and reverse panda
The nickname is about contrast, not reference. A white dial with black registers is the panda; a black dial with white registers is the reverse panda. Older Daytonas earned the name first — the high-contrast dials of the manual-wind era are where the term comes from — and it carried forward to the modern references.
What to check
Check the sub-dial edges for any bleed or unevenness in the printing, confirm the chronograph pushers operate crisply and reset cleanly to zero, and look at the ceramic bezel for chips around the tachymetre scale. As with any Daytona, establish the box and papers position early — it affects both price and resale materially.
Related collections
See the green-dial John Mayer, the meteorite dials, or the full Daytona and pre-owned Rolex collections.
Frequently asked questions
A Daytona with a white dial and black sub-dials. The current references are the 116500LN and the 126500LN.
The same watch with the colours swapped — a black dial with white sub-dials.
The 126500LN replaced the 116500LN in 2023, with a revised case, a wider bezel opening and an updated movement. They look very similar.
Yes, on both. The 116500LN was the first steel Daytona to get a black Cerachrom bezel.
