Who will lift the Centenary Trophy? Each winning driver will also leave Le Mans with an engraved Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona as unique as it is historic.
It will be a victory for history, after 86,400 seconds… This year, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans will have an even more special flavor than usual. After fatigue and endurance, the 100th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will end on Sunday 11 June in the afternoon.
For the occasion, the winning team will step onto the podium to lift the Centenary trophy of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but not only. As Rolex has already been the Official Watch of the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2001, each driver will also receive an engraved Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona. The most legendary of chronographs – which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year – was specifically engraved for this edition which will go down in the history of motorsport.
This Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona in Oystersteel (Ref. 116500LN-0002) will go down in history with the names of the victorious pilots. And this is in front of more than 200,000 people expected around the Sarthe circuit. Tom Kristensen, alongside Rolex since 2010, is undoubtedly the one who knows the subject best: he holds the record for victories, with nine successes at Le Mans… “To understand the importance of this competition, you have to look back on its hundred years of existence. There have been countless evolutions, revolutions, triumphs, and disappointments – so many events that have forged the legend of this race. Nobody is perfect, but during the race, a driver can optimize his qualities and get as close as possible to perfection. And during a turn of the dial, each minute that passes, each lap that passes, brings victory or abandonment closer.
A victory after fatigue and endurance. Rolex
Tom Kristensen knows intimately what it symbolizes to receive a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona at the moment of victory: “The winners will long remember the moment they received a Daytona at the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This watch will forever tell the story of the race, and the Le Mans inscription engraved on its case back further reinforces its status. This year, a driver will be much more than a winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he will be the one who wins the centenary edition. The feat of a lifetime.”