Rolex Daytona Ref. 6263 'Big Red' (steel)

The last of the hand-wound Daytonas

Rolex launched its Cosmograph chronograph in 1963 with the reference 6239, a watch built for racing drivers, with the tachymeter scale moved off the dial and onto the bezel. Over the next seven years the line went through a run of references: the 6240 with the first screw-down pushers, the 6241 with a black bezel, and the 6262 and 6264, which introduced the caliber 727. The reference 6263 arrived at the start of the 1970s as the black-bezel half of a final pair. Its sister, the 6265, had a metal bezel instead.

The 6263 took the screw-down pushers Rolex had tried on the 6240 and made them standard. With a screw-down crown and caseback as well, the case earned the word 'Oyster' on the dial, the brand's mark for a sealed, water-resistant case; one catalog description puts the rating at 50 meters. Around the crystal sits a black acrylic bezel insert, often called bakelite by collectors, graduated from 50 to 200 units per hour.

Sources disagree slightly on the dates. A collector's reference table and an auction catalog give production as 1971 to 1987, while an encyclopedia's reference table lists 1971 to 1988 and its text says the 6263 and 6265 were produced from 1970. Either way the reference ran for well over a decade and a half, longer than any manual-wind Daytona before it, and it was still current when Rolex moved the line to an automatic movement in 1988.

Big Red, Small Red

The nickname comes from the dial. On many 6263s the word DAYTONA is printed in red, in large capital letters, just above the hour register at 6 o'clock. One dealer history dates the red printing to 1975. Dials came in two schemes, black with white registers or silver with black registers, the contrast meant to make the registers easy to read at a glance.

Not every 6263 carries the red word, and the size of the lettering varies. Collectors split the red dials into 'Big Red' and 'Small Red' (also called 'Little Red'). A detailed collector's guide gives the tell: on an original Big Red dial the curved DAYTONA text runs into the edge of the lower register, while on the Small Red the text is thinner and sits neatly above it. That guide and a second dealer's history both identify the Small Red as a replacement dial fitted during servicing, which is why the Big Red is the version collectors chase.

Original dials of the period used tritium for their luminous plots and are marked 'T Swiss T' at the bottom. Dials fitted at service after 1998 use Luminova and are marked simply 'Swiss', an easy check for a replaced dial. Some 6263s carry 'Sigma' dials, with small sigma symbols beside the lume marking, a sign of gold used in the dial's hour markers.

The 6263 also carried one of the rarest dials of all. A small number left the factory with the 'exotic' dial collectors call the 'Paul Newman', including steel and gold examples; in spring 2017 a yellow gold 6263 with a 'Lemon' exotic dial sold at auction for CHF 3,722,000. Those watches form a separate market. This page is about the standard Big Red.

How to read one

Inside is the Rolex caliber 727, a 17-jewel manual-wind chronograph movement based on the Valjoux 72. Most sources, including an encyclopedia entry, an auction catalog and two collector guides, give its rate as 21,600 vibrations per hour, up from 18,000 on the earlier 722 calibers; one collector's history says 19,800, so the figure is not fully settled. One dealer history says the improvement came from replacing 15 components of the earlier caliber 722-1.

Collectors sort the screw-down pushers into three generations: the first, used on the 6240 and early 6263 and 6265, followed in the early to middle 1970s by a second and then a third type. These generations come from long observation of surviving watches, not from Rolex records. Early watches came on a folded-link Oyster bracelet, reference 7835; from about 1977 Rolex switched to the solid-link 78350.

The case is small by modern standards. Sources give it as 37 mm or just under 38 mm. Because Rolex reused parts across references, a 6265 can turn up with a caseback stamped 6263 inside, and service replacement bezels, pushers and dials are common. One collector's guide notes that a post-production replacement bakelite bezel can be spotted by a rounded 'S' in the word UNITS instead of a Z-like one.

'Drive slowly Joanne'

Paul Newman's first Daytona, a 6239 with an exotic dial, became the most famous watch in the world when it sold for $17,752,500 in 2017. His second was a 6263 Big Red with a standard black dial. Joanne Woodward bought it for him, and its caseback is engraved 'Drive slowly Joanne', a companion to the 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME' engraving on the first. The sale catalog, as quoted by a watch publication, dates the purchase to 1983; an encyclopedia entry says Woodward bought him a new watch in 1984, the year Newman gave his first Daytona to James Cox. One magazine says it was a gift for the couple's 25th wedding anniversary.

It was the watch Newman wore the longest and was most often photographed wearing. He wore it from the time it was bought until 2008, when he gave it to his daughter Clea Newman Soderlund before his death.

Clea Newman Soderlund offered it at auction on December 12, 2020, with proceeds intended for charity. Bidding opened a little under $1 million and quickly jumped to $2 million. A telephone bidder represented from Geneva won it with a $4.5 million hammer bid, $5,475,000 with fees, then the third-highest price paid for any Rolex at auction. Most reports place the sale in New York; one magazine says London, which conflicts with the others.

A watch publication covering the sale noted that a standard Big Red 6263 would normally sell for about $80,000. The rest of the price was the story of whose wrist it had been on.

What an ordinary Big Red brings

Without a famous owner, the 6263 Big Red has a steady public record. In June 2023 a black-dial Big Red from about 1979 sold at auction in New York for $63,000, within its $40,000 to $80,000 estimate. A dealer history says Big Reds usually carry pre-sale estimates of at least about $50,000, far below what exotic-dial examples bring.

Originality drives the price: an original Big Red dial with intact tritium plots, a correct bezel and correct pushers. A Small Red service dial lowers the value. One dealer puts Small Red examples at around $60,000 and says mint Big Reds bring far more.

The design still echoes in Rolex's current line. The steel ceramic-bezel Daytona introduced in 2016, reference 116500LN, pairs a black bezel and screw-down pushers with red DAYTONA text, and a dealer history describes it as drawing heavily on the 6263.

The numbers

Reference

6263

Caliber

Rolex 727, Valjoux 72 base, manual wind, 17 jewels; 21,600 vph in most sources (one says 19,800)

Case

About 37 mm, steel (also 14k and 18k gold), screw-down crown, pushers and caseback

Bezel

Black acrylic insert, tachymeter graduated 50 to 200 units per hour

Production years

About 1971 to 1987 (some sources give a 1970 start or a 1988 end)

Production numbers

Not published by Rolex

Bracelets

Folded-link 7835 early; solid-link 78350 from about 1977

Timeline

1. 1962

   Rolex becomes official timekeeper of Daytona International Speedway.

2. 1963

   Rolex introduces the Cosmograph reference 6239.

3. 1965

   The reference 6240 introduces screw-down pushers and the 'Oyster' label on the dial.

4. 1970

   The references 6262 and 6264 introduce the caliber 727.

5. 1971

   The black-bezel 6263 enters production alongside the steel-bezel 6265 (one source says 1970).

6. 1975

   Rolex begins printing DAYTONA in red above the 6 o'clock register, according to one dealer history.

7. 1977

   The solid-link 78350 Oyster bracelet replaces the folded-link 7835, according to a collector's guide.

8. 1983

   Joanne Woodward buys Paul Newman a 6263 Big Red engraved 'Drive slowly Joanne' (another account says 1984).

9. 1987

   Production of the 6263 ends, by most accounts (some sources say 1988).

10. 1988

    Rolex introduces the automatic reference 16520, ending the manual-wind Daytona.

11. 1998

    Rolex service dials switch from tritium to Luminova, marked 'Swiss' instead of 'T Swiss T'.

12. 2008

    Newman gives his 6263 to his daughter Clea Newman Soderlund.

13. 2017

    A yellow gold 6263 with an exotic 'Lemon' dial sells at auction for CHF 3,722,000.

14. Dec 12, 2020

    Newman's 6263 Big Red sells at auction for $5,475,000.

15. Jun 6, 2023

    A black-dial 6263 Big Red from about 1979 sells at auction in New York for $63,000.

The world in 1975

• Apr 4, 1975

  Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Micro-Soft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Apr 30, 1975

  Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War.

• Jun 5, 1975

  The Suez Canal reopens for the first time since the Six-Day War.

• Jul 17, 1975

  American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit.

• Aug 1, 1975

  The Helsinki Accords are signed in Finland.

• Oct 1, 1975

  Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in the 'Thrilla in Manila'.

• Nov 20, 1975

  Francisco Franco dies; Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain two days later.

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, Rolex Daytona Ref. 6263 'Big Red' (steel) is number 40 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 (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Paul Newman wore his 6263 Big Red longer than any of his other watches, from the early 1980s until 2008.
• The 'Small Red' dial is generally identified as a replacement dial fitted at service, which is why it is worth less than the Big Red.
• A dial that glows after the lights go out is a giveaway: original 6263 dials used tritium, which has long since faded, while post-1998 service dials use Luminova.
• Rolex reused casebacks across references, so a 6263-stamped caseback can turn up inside a 6265.
• The 6263 and 6265 were the last hand-wound Daytonas; the automatic 16520 replaced them in 1988.
• Rolex's steel ceramic Daytona of 2016, the 116500LN, borrows the 6263's black bezel, screw-down pushers and red DAYTONA text.