Entrepreneur Stephan Winkelmann spotted wearing a Rolex

In a recent professional portrait, Stephan Winkelmann — the Austrian-Italian entrepreneur who has helmed Lamborghini through one of its most commercially successful eras — was photographed wearing a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116500LN in stainless steel with a white 'Panda' dial and Oysterflex bracelet. The pairing is understated by supercar-executive standards, yet the watch itself is anything but easy to acquire.

Introduced at Baselworld 2016, the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 116500LN marked a significant engineering milestone: it was the first Daytona to feature Rolex's proprietary Cerachrom ceramic bezel, rendered here in black with a white tachymetric scale. Beneath the 40mm Oyster case beats the Calibre 4130, an in-house column-wheel chronograph movement with a vertical clutch, offering a 72-hour power reserve and a frequency of 28,800 vph. The sapphire crystal is fitted with a Cyclops lens over the date — there is no date on the Daytona, a deliberate design choice — and the case is water-resistant to 100 metres.

The 'Panda' dial configuration — white base with contrasting black registers — is among the most historically resonant Daytona variants, tracing its aesthetic lineage back to the exotic dial references of the 1960s that today command seven-figure sums at auction. The 116500LN reinterpreted that visual language for the modern era with applied hour markers and a lacquered finish, while the Oysterflex bracelet — a vulcanised rubber strap with an internal metal blade — offers flexibility without sacrificing the integrated look of the Oyster bracelet.

Winkelmann, who has also led Bugatti and Audi Sport, occupies a rarefied space in the automotive world where precision engineering and brand mythology intersect daily. That he reaches for the Daytona 116500LN rather than a more ostentatious timepiece says something about his calibration of image: the reference is universally recognised among enthusiasts without needing to announce itself loudly.

On the secondary market, the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116500LN 'Panda' consistently trades well above its $15,050 retail price — current grey-market values sit around $32,000, roughly double list. Rolex has since released the successor ref. 126500LN, but demand for the 116500LN has not softened. For collectors, it remains one of the clearest illustrations of what a perpetual waiting list does to perceived value.