Entrepreneur Emma Marcegaglia spotted wearing a Rolex

Emma Marcegaglia, one of Italy's most prominent industrialists and current chairman of energy giant Eni, was recently spotted wearing a vintage Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 6264 in stainless steel — a watch that stops serious collectors in their tracks. The piece features a silver dial, Bakelite bezel, and the distinctive pump pushers that define the pre-Oyster Daytona era, placing it firmly among the rarest wrist-worn chronographs ever produced.

The ref. 6264 was produced from approximately 1969 to 1972, bridging the transition within Rolex's Daytona lineup. It houses the Valjoux 727 hand-wound movement, a robust and accurate ebauche that Rolex regulated to its own standards. The pump pushers flanking the case at 2 and 4 o'clock are a hallmark of this generation, soon to be replaced by the screw-down pushers of the ref. 6265. The Bakelite bezel, prone to shrinkage and cracking over five decades, survives intact on very few surviving examples — its condition here appears exceptional.

Among Daytona variants, the silver-dialed ref. 6264 occupies a paradoxical position in the collector hierarchy: less visually dramatic than the exotic-dialed Paul Newman references, yet statistically rarer at auction. The silver dial's subdued elegance is precisely what makes it hard to identify for the uninitiated — and highly coveted by those who know. Surviving examples with unrestored dials and matching bezels command premiums that rival, and occasionally exceed, their Paul Newman counterparts at major auction houses.

Marcegaglia's background lends additional context to the sighting. As former president of Confindustria, Italy's main employers' federation, and a lifelong figure in Italian industrial and energy policy, she operates in circles where understated authority matters. A vintage steel Daytona — worn without fanfare — fits that register precisely: no diamonds, no ostentation, just one of the rarest chronographs ever made on a steel bracelet.

On the grey market, a ref. 6264 with a silver dial in strong condition trades well into six figures. Auction results at Christie's, Phillips, and Sotheby's have placed comparable examples between $150,000 and $300,000 depending on dial originality, bezel condition, and provenance — figures that reflect both extreme scarcity and sustained global collector demand for pre-Oyster Daytona references.