What's better than a brand-new Rolex? A fully-customized Rolex! At least, that's what Adam Levine would probably say.
Though the Maroon 5 frontman has enough dosh to afford any new watch at face value (pun intended), Levine instead opted to get his gold Rolex Daytona 116508 fully reworked by Artisans De Genève, a Swiss workshop that elevates existing timepieces to discerning customers' standards.
Levine more than made up for the market value of his Rolex Daytona here: Artisans De Genève fully customized Levine's watch from the ground up to the tune of 3,552,000 CHF, or just over $4 million.
That's a lotta dough to drop on a Rolex that anyone could purchase right now for under $100k (a mere six figures!), so why go to all this effort?
Well, for starters, Levine likely has some sentimental value baked into his gold Daytona; Rolex's Daytona is is indisputably timeless (read: a great base for customization); and, finally, Levine wanted to retain that versatility while also creating something utterly distinct. What he ended up with was a bespoke timepiece with its own name: "NEON."
“I like classic watches, but I also want mine to be unique,” Levine said in a statement. “It was very important for me to have something that resembles me, a unique piece that stands out from all the others.”
Artisans De Genève entirely dismantled Levine's original Rolex Daytona to create "NEON," which gets its name from its new luminous bezel, rotor, hands, and dial, the latter of which is "crafted from a single block of natural sapphire," according to the company.
You won't find "NEON"s balance bridge anywhere else, either: Artisans De Genève handmade it entirely in-house. The watch's movement is now skeletonized, highlighting the internal intricacies and brand-new hardware sourced exclusively for Levine's watch, making it a true one-of-one.
Again, a brand-new Rolex is great but a Rolex with a story will always be more interesting.
Levine's custom Daytona ain't the most expensive iteration of the classic Rolex — hard to imagine anyone ever topping the imposing $17.8 hammer price generated by Paul Newman's Rolex — but it's now got a pricy story of its own.
