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President — 8AM Golf | Former CEO, True Spec Golf | Former Collegiate Golf Hall of Famer, Lynn University
Hoyt McGarity's Rolex Daytona Panda: The President of Golf's Most Ambitious Holding Company Wears the Collector's Chronograph
Lynn University Athletics Hall of Fame. Former professional tours. Co-founder of Modern Golf. CEO of True Spec Golf. Now President of 8AM Golf — the Howard Milstein holding company behind GOLF Magazine, Golf.com, Miura Golf, True Spec, the Nicklaus Companies, Justin Timberlake as creative partner, and the T-Squared Social venture with Tiger Woods. Hoyt McGarity sits at the strategic centre of the most ambitious integrated company in the golf industry. On his wrist: a Rolex Daytona Panda — the white-dial, black-subdial configuration that is among the most coveted variants of the most coveted chronograph in the world.
| Hoyt McGarity — Rolex Daytona Panda on wrist. Source: YouTube |
Rolex Daytona Panda — white dial, black subdials, black ceramic bezel, ref. 126500LN |
▶ Source: YouTube
Hoyt McGarity played collegiate golf at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida — where he earned hall of fame recognition for leading the team to multiple NCAA tournament appearances and conference titles — before competing on professional mini-tours. His transition into the business of golf produced a career that has touched almost every dimension of the industry: he co-founded Modern Golf, became CEO of True Spec Golf (the custom club fitting company that became one of the most respected fitting operations in the game), and ultimately assumed the role of President and CEO of 8AM Golf, the Howard Milstein-founded holding company that has grown to encompass fourteen brands across golf media, equipment, instruction, hospitality, and entertainment.
The 8AM Golf portfolio includes GOLF Magazine and Golf.com, Miura Golf (the legendary Japanese hand-crafted iron maker), True Spec fitting studios, the Nicklaus Companies (overseeing Jack Nicklaus's global licensing and course design businesses), and a creative partnership with Justin Timberlake who leads creative initiatives across the 8AM portfolio. Most recently, 8AM partnered with Tiger Woods and Timberlake to launch T-Squared Social, a sports dining concept in Manhattan. McGarity's role — creating synergies across all fourteen companies while pursuing new acquisitions and partnerships — places him at the operational heart of one of the sport's most complex and ambitious organisations. His background as a competitive golfer who understands the game from the inside gives him credibility across the portfolio that a purely financial operator would not have.
"He pursues the highest quality everywhere — creating synergies and efficiencies throughout 8AM and driving strategic projects across the portfolio." — On Hoyt McGarity's role at 8AM Golf
Timepiece
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona — "Panda" Dial
The "Panda" Daytona refers to the white-dial, black-subdial configuration of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona — so named for the visual resemblance of the white-and-black dial layout to a panda bear's face. The contrast between the white main dial and the three black chronograph registers (running seconds at 9, 30-minute counter at 3, 12-hour counter at 6) originated in the 1960s as a legibility solution for motorsport timing: maximum contrast between dial and subdials reduces reading time at speed. The current reference is the 126500LN — introduced in 2023, featuring a black Cerachrom ceramic bezel with engraved tachymetric scale, replacing the white gold bezel of the previous 116500LN generation.
The movement is Rolex's in-house Calibre 4131 — an evolution of the landmark 4130, with column-wheel chronograph mechanism, vertical clutch, 72-hour power reserve, and Superlative Chronometer certification at ±2 seconds per day. The Panda Daytona is among the most discussed and sought-after dial variants in the collection: the high-contrast layout is considered by many collectors to be the cleanest and most legible expression of the Daytona's design, and the black ceramic bezel of the current reference gives the white dial a graphic boldness that the previous white gold bezel version approached differently. It trades on the secondary market at premiums above even the standard steel Daytona references.
| Reference | 126500LN — Daytona Panda, black ceramic bezel, current generation |
| Dial | White — black chronograph subdials; "Panda" configuration |
| Bezel | Black Cerachrom ceramic — engraved tachymetric scale; introduced 2023 |
| Case | 40mm Oystersteel — screw-down pushers and crown, 100m water resistant |
| Movement | Calibre 4131 — automatic, column-wheel, vertical clutch, 72-hour power reserve |
| Precision | ±2 sec/day — Superlative Chronometer certified |
| Market price | ~$15,100 retail — secondary market at significant premium over standard steel Daytona |
The Golfer's Watch, Chosen by Golf's Operator
Rolex's relationship with golf is so complete — official timekeeper of all four Grand Slams, tournament partner, Testimonee programme spanning the sport's defining players — that the Daytona on a golf industry executive's wrist is less a coincidence than a statement of alignment. McGarity has built his career at the intersection of competitive golf and golf business, and 8AM Golf under his presidency has grown into the most comprehensive collection of golf brands assembled under a single holding company. The Panda Daytona is the collector's choice within the Daytona family — the dial variant chosen by people who understand the reference well enough to have a preference within it rather than simply selecting the most available configuration.
That specificity of choice is consistent with what 8AM Golf does as an organisation. The portfolio is not assembled by a generalist investor buying golf assets for financial exposure — it is built by people who understand the game deeply enough to know which brands have genuine quality (Miura irons are among the most technically precise in the world), which infrastructure serves the golfer's experience (True Spec fitting), and which media and lifestyle brands amplify all of it (GOLF Magazine, the Nicklaus name, T-Squared Social). McGarity choosing the Panda Daytona over a generic luxury watch is the same discriminating knowledge applied to the wrist.
The Highest Quality, Everywhere
8AM Golf's internal philosophy, as described by McGarity himself, is the pursuit of the highest quality everywhere — in the brands the company acquires, the partnerships it forms, and the execution it demands from each property in the portfolio. The Rolex Daytona Panda is, by the consensus of the watch collecting community, the highest quality expression of the highest quality chronograph in its category: white dial for maximum legibility, black ceramic bezel for scratch resistance and long-term finish integrity, Calibre 4131 movement for mechanical authority. A man who runs an organisation on the principle of highest quality everywhere and wears the Panda Daytona is telling you the same thing twice.
More Rolex Daytona Spots on Spot.Watch
- Georges St-Pierre — Gold Rolex Daytona
- Watch Drop Wednesday — April 15, 2026
- Robert Herjavec — Rolex Daytona
- Tom Brady — Rolex Daytona
- Andrew Schulz — Rolex Daytona
- Carlos Alcaraz — Rolex Daytona Gold Cosmograph
- Hoyt McGarity — Rolex Daytona Panda
- Joe Lonsdale — Rolex Daytona
- Matt Friend — Rolex Daytona
- Jason Bateman & Jennifer Aniston — Rolex Daytona
- Tom Segura — Rolex Daytona
- Kristi Noem — Rolex Gold Daytona
And at Spot.Watch — that's always worth noticing.
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