The Watch internet — heck, even the internet more broadly — has been busy chatting about Drake’s new Rolex over the last week. Now, major music stars and iced-out Rolex’s is a beloved and time-honoured tradition, but Drake’s new Daytona is a horse of a very different colour. Because it’s a one-off watch made by Rolex themselves.

Hard-launched on his Instagram account, Drake said about his new Daytona, “Today I received the most important thing I have ever had the pleasure of owning. This is the One of One Piece Unique Ice Gradient Daytona by @rolex. Crafted to celebrate the record-breaking milestones of 2026. Please do not get your local jeweler to recreate. This is a stand alone and a part of history. Thank you to the wonderful team at Rolex for blessing me with such a generational ticker.”

 

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Along with the obligatory wrist roll, Drake included a suite of details that piqued the curiosity of Rolex fans. In addition to the watch itself, covered in diamonds and sapphires and with ‘Freeze the World’ inscribed on the back in blue, Drake also showed off the special book and booklet that came with the one-of-one factory Rolex.

Seeing a one-off Rolex is rare enough; public sightings are vanishingly rare, but to see what sort of paraphenalia it comes with is insightful. To learn more about the process behind these mysterious watches, we reached out to Ross Povey, better known on Instagram as TudorCollector. In addition, Povey is the founder of 165 Club and the co-author of Pucci Papaleo’s Daytona Perpetual Book. He’s also a mine with rather polar tastes in watches — while he’s all in on vintage, military-issued Tudor’s his other love is rare gem-set Rolex. So if anyone knows how a piece unique from the crown gets made, it’s him.

Image via instagram.com/champagnepapi

Povey explains what he knows of the process. “It’s a bit of a dark art, because nobody is entirely clear on how the whole process works. In many cases, it begins with the retailers. It’s an extension of the system used for the gem-set, off-catalogue pieces, where production is extremely limited, and retailers apply on behalf of their very best clients, essentially making the case for why that particular client should receive the watch. My understanding is that the commissioning of these unique pieces follows a similar path.”

A fully diamond-set Rolex Piece Unique similar to Drake’s in design. Image courtesy of TudorCollector

It’s easy to see why Drake, with a well-documented and extensive collection (not to mention a very public profile), would be in consideration for this sort of allocation, but for Povey, the book is the most interesting part of Drake’s post. “While the special box is interesting, what really matters is the accompanying book. That kind of documentation is what authenticates these watches’ credibility. I can think of two other comparable pieces. One is similar to Drake’s but entirely diamond-set, while another, from Oman, is fully gem-set with an emerald bezel and red enamelled Eastern Arabic hours. If you encountered it without knowing the provenance, you could easily assume it was aftermarket. But it comes with the book and was originally sold through an Omani retailer.”

The ‘Omani’ Rolex Daytona Piece Unique. Image courtesy of TudorCollector

For Povey, the booklet is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Drake’s new Rolex. Image via instagram.com/champagnepapi

Povey goes on to explain. “I know of half a dozen unique Daytonas, and there are inevitably more, but these watches so rarely enter the public domain that it’s difficult to know exactly what’s out there. Had Drake’s watch gone directly into a private collection, for example, we might never have known about it. The Omani watch remains virtually unknown for the same reason.”

An image of the ‘Omani’ Rolex Daytona Piece Unique from included Rolex booklet. Image courtesy of TudorCollector

Of course, when it comes to exceptionally rare Rolex like these unique pieces, the question of market value is always close at hand, and while at the moment it’s an abstract question, Povey has thoughts. “Should any of these watches ever come to auction, the results could be staggering. Even the rare off-catalogue gem-set pieces are now selling in the region of $1.3–1.5 million. This is an incredibly small corner of the market, populated by collectors with extraordinarily deep pockets. What Drake’s watch will do, more than anything, is bring greater awareness to it. It shines a light on a world of Rolex collecting that, until now, has largely existed behind closed doors.”