The Crazy Story Behind Paul Newman's Record Breaking Daytona Rolex

One of the craziest stories around one of the most iconic wrist watches in the world, The original Paul Newman Rolex Oyster Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6239, was recently regaled on my favourite podcast, The Adam Carolla show. Adam is a collector of Paul Newman race cars and at a recent car show in Reno brushed shoulders with a gentleman called James Cox who used to date Newman's daughter Nell Newman. It was James Cox who owned the infamous Newman Rolex Daytona, and put it up for auction in 2017. 

The story goes like this, and strap yourself in. 

Newman’s wife Joanne Woodward, who engraved the item with the inscription “Drive Carefully, Me”, gifted the wristwatch to the American actor in 1963. Nell Newman (Paul's daughter), was dating a guy called James Cox. James is circa 60 years old now, but when he was 18 or 19 he's dating Nell Newman and staying at the Newman house, working on the treehouse every day on the Newman acreage on the family estate. At some point, Paul walks up to him and asks 'what time is it?' James says he doesn't have a watch, and Paul gifts him the Rolex saying, 'well why don't you have this one.'

At this point, Newman had already been given a second watch by his wife (three are believed to have been bought. inscribed and gifted). From there, James goes to Berkley and lives his life and wears the Newman watch every day. One day James is walking through the park in Berkley and finds another Rolex watch on the ground. He trades that in for a Porsche 1914, and still continues to wear the Newman watch. 

It gets crazier 

James put his Newman Rolex watch into a sock drawer one day and leaves his apartment. His apartment got broken into and the robbers steal his stereo but miss the watch. Many years later a Japanese business man comes up to James and says that Daytona Rolex is really worth something. 

He takes a punt at maybe 50-60 grand. James decides to go see a specialist who says it’s worth a few hundred grand. By the time it reaches Phillips Auction house in New York the hype has reached fever pitch and the reserve is set at one million dollars. The first bid right out of the gate was 10 million, and you can hear the air being sucked out the room.

Just watch this moment from the auction on YouTube, it's truly staggering. Everyone just stops, including the auctioneer Aurel Bacs who called “possibly the most iconic wristwatch of the 20th century. The vintage wristwatch was purchased by an anonymous telephone bidder, and the total spend of $17.8 million on this watch broke all records before.

Photos sourced to tell the story from WSJ.COM

Fact checks done through LuxeWatches