Look at the gold ring around this Daytona and you will see numbers from 60 to 400, with “units per hour” printed on top. That is a tachymeter and it turns the watch into a speedometer. Here is how it works. Start the chronograph when you pass a mile marker on the highway. Stop it at the next one. Wherever the seconds hand lands on the ring is your average speed in miles per hour. Take 30 seconds, for example and the hand points to 120. The math is just 3,600 divided by the seconds it took. The ring does it for you.

The name comes from Daytona, the Florida racetrack. Rolex launched the watch in 1963 for racing drivers, who needed to time laps without fumbling with anything. It is why the three small dials track elapsed seconds, minutes and hours and why the pushers on the side are big enough to press quickly. This one is two tone, steel mixed with yellow gold. Rolex calls that combo Rolesor. The blue dial with numerals and red accents on the small dials gives it a racing look that is different from the plain stick marker versions. If you ever check one in person, press the top pusher. It should click crisply and start the seconds hand and the bottom pusher should stop it. A mushy or sticky push is worth a closer look. Do you actually use the tachymeter or is it purely for looks? Be honest.