Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239

A gift for a new racer

Paul Newman had been married to the actress Joanne Woodward for ten years when, in 1968, she bought him a steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 6239. Newman was making Winning, a film about motor racing, and the sport was taking hold of him. Woodward had the caseback engraved 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME', a dry joke about the danger of his new obsession. Sources differ slightly on timing: the catalog for the 2017 sale and a detailed hands-on report both put the gift in 1968, while other accounts place it as late as about 1972, when Newman began racing in earnest.

A hand-engraved inventory number, D61798, on one lug indicates the watch was most likely bought from a jeweler in New York. Its case number is 2'005'325, and inside is the manual-wind caliber 722 with 17 jewels, Rolex's version of the Valjoux 72 chronograph. The steel case measures about 37 mm according to the sale catalog.

What set the watch apart was its dial. Rolex offered an alternative 'exotic' dial on early Daytonas, with block markers, Art Deco numerals and a contrasting minute track. It sold poorly at the time; only about one in twenty Daytonas got it, an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 were made. Newman's is off-white with black registers, the 'panda' look. Newman went on to own several Daytonas, but this 6239 was the first and only exotic-dial Daytona he wore.

The actor who named a dial

Newman, born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in 1925, became one of the great film stars of the century and, unusually, a serious racing driver. He won four national championships with the Sports Car Club of America, finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979, and at 70 won his class at the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona.

He wore the 6239 nearly every day for roughly 15 years, often on a leather strap, and was photographed wearing it for a 1972 book about his life. Because he wore it so consistently, collectors later began calling every exotic-dial Daytona a 'Paul Newman'. The man himself had no hand in the nickname. The watch on his wrist simply gave a name to a whole category.

Newman was also known for giving things away. In 1982 he founded Newman's Own, which donates all of its after-tax profits to charity. That habit shaped what happened to his watch.

From a treehouse to a safe deposit box

In the summer of 1984, James Cox, 18 and then dating Newman's daughter Nell, was helping build a treehouse on the family property. Newman asked him the time. Cox said he did not have a watch. Newman took the Daytona off his wrist and handed it over, with instructions to keep it wound.

Cox, who had grown up with little money, wore it every day through college. In the early 1990s a stranger at a trade show recognized it, the first hint he had of its significance. Years later a dealer in Monterey suggested Newman's own watch might be worth about $300,000. Around 2010 or 2011 Cox stopped wearing it and put it in a safe deposit box.

In 2017 Cox decided to sell it publicly rather than privately, with a signed letter from Nell Newman confirming its history. He said Newman did not hoard things and would have approved, and pledged the proceeds to the Nell Newman Foundation, with a share also going to Newman's Own Foundation.

Twelve minutes in New York

The watch was offered on October 26, 2017, as lot 8 of a themed sale of 20th-century watches in New York, with an estimate of $1 million to $2 million. Bidding opened at $1 million and the next bid was $10 million. The contest ran for 12 minutes, reached $15 million, and ended with an anonymous telephone bidder winning at $15.5 million before fees, $17,752,500 in all.

It was the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch at auction, beating the $11.1 million paid for a steel Patek Philippe in November 2016. At the time a standard 6239 with a Paul Newman dial typically sold for about $100,000 to $120,000, so nearly all of the price was the story: the engraving, the owner and the gift.

The record stood for two years. On November 10, 2019, a unique steel Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime made for a charity sale in Geneva brought 31 million Swiss francs; the room applauded as bidding passed the Newman watch's figure on the way up.

How to recognize it

The watch is unpolished and shows mild, honest wear from years on the wrist. The dial has developed a creamy, warm patina, with minor spotting and its original luminous markers and hands intact. The pushers are the simple pump type of the 6239, not the screw-down pushers of later references.

Three marks make it this watch and no other: case number 2'005'325, the inventory number D61798 engraved on a lug, and the caseback inscription 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME'. Newman's later Daytona, a reference 6263 with a conventional dial, carries a different gift inscription, 'DRIVE SLOWLY, JOANNE'.

After the sale the watch dropped from view. It reappeared on September 26, 2021, displayed at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles at a formal dinner, credited to a private collection and shown with the support of Rolex.

The numbers

Reference

6239

Case number

2'005'325

Caliber

722, manual wind, 17 jewels

Case

Stainless steel, about 37 mm per the sale catalog

Pushers

Pump, non-screw-down

Exotic dials made, all early Daytonas

Estimated 2,000 to 3,000

Timeline

1. 1958

   Paul Newman marries Joanne Woodward.

2. 1968

   Woodward buys Newman a steel 6239, case 2'005'325, engraved 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME'.

3. 1972

   Newman is photographed wearing the watch on a leather strap for a book about his life.

4. 1979

   Newman finishes second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

5. 1982

   Newman founds Newman's Own.

6. 1984

   Newman gives the watch to 18-year-old James Cox while Cox helps build a treehouse.

7. 1995

   At 70, Newman wins his class at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

8. Sep 26, 2008

   Paul Newman dies in Westport, Connecticut.

9. Oct 26, 2017

   The watch sells at auction in New York for $17,752,500, a record for any wristwatch.

10. Nov 10, 2019

    A unique Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime sells for 31 million Swiss francs, taking the wristwatch record.

11. Sep 26, 2021

    The watch makes its first public appearance since the sale, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

The world in 1968

• Jan 30, 1968

  The Tet Offensive begins in South Vietnam.

• Apr 4, 1968

  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.

• May 1968

  Student and worker protests nearly topple the French government.

• Jun 5, 1968

  Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles.

• Aug 20, 1968

  Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring.

• Oct 11, 1968

  Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission, launches.

• Oct 12, 1968

  The Summer Olympics open in Mexico City.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239 is number 1 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (98 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Newman gave the watch away because a teenager helping on his treehouse did not own one.
• James Cox wore it daily through college before he understood what it was.
• The 2017 bidding opened at $1 million and the next bid was $10 million.
• The lug carries a jeweler's inventory number, D61798, hand-engraved when it was sold new.
• This was the only exotic-dial Daytona Newman ever wore, though the dial type carries his name.
• Bidders applauded in Geneva in 2019 when a Patek Philippe passed this watch's price.
• After the sale it stayed out of sight for nearly four years, until a 2021 dinner at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles.