The near-mythical watch that gave the most desirable style of vintage Rolex its nickname, Paul Newman’s own “Paul Newman” Cosmograph Daytona, has now become the most expensive wristwatch ever sold.

At an auction recently by Phillips Auctioneers in New York, the legendary actor’s chronograph, a gift from his wife Joanne Woodward who inscribed on its back the legendary “DRIVE SAFELY ME”, hammered for $17,752,500, including buyer’s premium. It sold to a private phone bidder after around 12 minutes of bidding.

It far surpasses the $11.1 million price achieved by a Patek Philippe ref. 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph in steel one year ago, previously the most expensive wristwatch ever sold; and the $5 million Rolex owned by the former emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, sold in May this year and thus for a short while the most expensive Rolex ever. All three records were achieved by Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo, a specialist vintage watch agency led by auctioneer Aurel Bacs.

The most expensive watch of any kind ever sold remains the Patek Philippe “Supercomplication” made in the 1930s for the industrialist Henry Graves, sold by Sotheby’s Geneva in 2014 for CHF 23,237,000. In that instance, Bacs was also the winning bidder, on behalf of a private client.

“Without exaggeration, this is for many in the room the most iconic Rolex wristwatch in the world, possibly the most iconic wristwatch of the 20th century,” Bacs declared as he opened the bidding for the Ref 6239 Rolex Oyster Cosmograph Daytona (its proper full designation).

The Cosmograph Daytona being Rolex’s automotive-inspired chronograph that launched in 1963, the “Paul Newman” nickname refers to certain versions made between 1963 and the mid-1970s, also known as “exotic dial” Daytonas. These have contrast-colour “panda” dials – either white with black sub-dials, or black with white sub-dials – with unusual square-tipped indexes on the sub-dials. Especially desirable models, including Paul Newman’s own version, have a red seconds indexes around the edge of the dial.

The exotic dial models sold poorly and Rolex ceased producing them in the 1970s. It was only in the late 1980s that watch collectors began seeking such models out due to their relative rarity; the association with Paul Newman, photographed several times wearing the watch, would spur their desirability.

In particular, prices rocketed during the 2000s, though Newman’s version smashes the $3.7 million record for a Rolex Daytona – an ultra-rare Paul Newman version in yellow gold, sold by Bacs for Phillips in May this year.

Newman’s own version, a Ref. 6239 Cosmograph Daytona made in 1963, was given to him by his wife, the actress Joanne Woodward. Newman being a keen racing driver, Rolex’s chronograph designed for motor racing would have been a natural and obvious choice.

It is thought that the watch was purchased either during or following filming of the 1969 film Winning, in which Newman played the racing driver Frank Capa and Woodward played his wife. In 1984 Newman gifted the watch to James Cox, the boyfriend of his daughter Nell Newman, who happened to lack a watch of his own at the time. Cox and Nell Newman remained close friends, and a portion of the sale proceeds are going to benefit the Newman’s Own charitable foundation.

phillipswatches.com

This article was first published in The Telegraph