Paul Newman has been nicknamed the ‘King of fine watches’ in the collector community. So much so, that collectors started renaming the Rolex Daytona with an exotic dial “the Paul Newman” because of how often he wore that model. He took ownership from certain models of Daytona which became know as the Paul Newman dial. Although Rolex don’t condone it, they’re less resistant to the epithet than they were in the late 1960’s.
The most famous one, that was gifted to him by Joanne Woodward carried the casebook engraving “DRIVE CAREFULLY ME”, is the one he was photographed in constantly. This was sold at Phillips in 2017 for a record $17.8 million and was a ref. 6239. He also owned at least one other famous Daytona, a ref. 6263 (the screw-down pusher / Oyster-case generation, also an exotic dial), which his daughter Clea later wore and which surfaced publicly around 2020.
Rolex at auction: Here’s how you could own a rare ‘Paul Newman’ Daytona
Last week, Sotheby’s hosted the Property from The World of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman auction which featured hundreds of items from the iconic couple’s lives, including large amounts of racing memorabilia, personal items and of course, watches – principally two Rolex Daytona’s worn by the actor.
While neither Daytona reached the insane heights of Newman’s inscribed 1968 model which sold for $17.8 million in 2017, the legendary actor’s watches still pull in wildly impressive numbers at auction.
The first Rolex Daytona is a stainless steel Zenith and one of the first automatic models made by the company and have since become highly collectable.
While highly desirable on its own, what gives this watch extra provenance is that this watch was presented to Newman after his team won the TS-1 class at the 1995 edition of the historic 24 Hours of Daytona race.
The watch is also engraved with the message: “Rolex at Daytona 24 Paul Newman Rolex Motorsports Man of the Year 1995”.
The Daytona was thought to be in the hands of a private citizen after Newman auctioned the watch for charity in the late 90’s, selling it for $39,000 but it must have been bought back by him or his family at some point.
With an initial estimate of between $500,000 and $1,000,000, the watch exceeded its estimate and eventually sold for just over a staggering $1.1 million, becoming one of the most expensive celebrity watches of all time.
The other Rolex Daytona in the auction is white gold with a leather strap, dating back to near the end of Newman’s life. This is a particularly noteworthy piece for two reasons: the first is that is the only precious metal Daytona ever worn by Newman and the second is that it was a gift from Woodward and features the engraved message “Drive very slowly Joanne”.
Fittingly, Newman wore the watch during the last laps of a race at Lime Rock Park in August 2008, just a month before he died at the age of 83 from lung cancer.
Because of the provenance of the watch and the personal details relating to Newman, an estimate of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 was placed on the Daytona and yet again it beat the estimate, just edging past the $1,000,000 mark, meaning Woodward and the family pocketed more than $2,000,000 from the two pieces.
The auctioning off of hundreds of items previously belonging to the actor during his lifetime including his personal billiards table which was sold for more than $95,000. Also available was a number of film scripts from movies such as The Sting and The Colour of Money while fans could also purchase bits from Newman’s extensive art collection and his Oscar nomination certificate for Cool Hand Luke.
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