Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona – The Drivers’ Watch, The Most Expensive Wristwatch Ever.
Newman’s personal stainless steel Cosmograph Daytona (reference 6239) – gifted to him in October 2017 by his wife Joanne Woodward in 1968 and engraved with the message “Drive carefully” in reference to the actor’s passion for driving cars really, really fast – sold for £13.5 million in auction. It was originally expected to sell for a meagre £1 million.
This circa 1968, 36mm stainless steel chronograph has a cream “exotic” dial with plenty of detail. It includes applied square and luminous indexes, a black outer track with red calibrations and “T SWISS T” designation, luminous hands with a center sweep second hand and three subdials for small seconds, 30-minutes and 12-hour registers. The reason the dial is known as the “Paul Newman” or “exotic” is because of the square markers on the three subdials. In addition, the dial has the “Daytona” name in red letters above the subdial at 6 o’clock. The stainless steel bezel has a 200-unit graduated tachometer. It is powered by the Valjoux 722 manual movement. Finally, it is fitted with a stainless steel Royal Oyster bracelet.
