Entrepreneur Howard Schultz spotted wearing a Rolex

Howard Schultz, the businessman who transformed Starbucks from a handful of Seattle coffee shops into the world's most recognized café chain, has been spotted wearing one of the most historically significant chronographs Rolex ever produced: the Cosmograph reference 6238, known universally among collectors as the 'Pre-Daytona.'

The Rolex Cosmograph ref. 6238 was produced in the early-to-mid 1960s — estimates place production between approximately 1963 and 1967 — and occupies a singular position in Rolex chronograph history. It is the last model in the Rolex lineup to feature the tachymeter scale printed directly on the dial, a design choice that would be abandoned when the company migrated that scale to the bezel with the introduction of the ref. 6239, the watch that formally bore the Daytona name. Powered by the Valjoux 72 manual-wind ebauche — the same robust movement that would carry the Daytona through its first decades — the 6238 runs at 18,000 vph and offers a column-wheel chronograph mechanism of considerable quality for its era.

What makes the Rolex Cosmograph 6238 genuinely extraordinary from a collector standpoint is the production figure. Rolex is famously opaque about manufacturing numbers, but the 6238 is among the rare exceptions: total production is estimated at roughly 360 pieces across all dial variants. That number places it in a category of Rolex scarcity that few references can claim, rarer by orders of magnitude than early Paul Newman Daytonas or even the ref. 6241 with its exotic dials. Surviving examples are catalogued with near-archaeological rigor by specialist collectors.

Schultz, who stepped down as Starbucks CEO for the final time in 2023 after decades of shaping the company, has long cultivated an interest in fine watches. His choice of the Pre-Daytona 6238 signals a level of horological literacy that goes well beyond the standard executive's taste for a current-reference Submariner or Datejust — this is the choice of someone who has done serious homework.

On the grey market, the Rolex Cosmograph reference 6238 commands prices that reflect both its scarcity and its transitional importance. Depending on dial condition, presence of original pushers, and case sharpness, examples have sold at auction and through specialist dealers in a range that can reach well into six figures for exceptional specimens.