OT: Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona Fetches $17.7+ Million at Auction

On Oct. 26, Newman’s lost masterpiece will go on sale as the centerpiece of a watch auction at Phillips in New York, following a treasures-of-King Tut-style world tour to whip up interest - as if interest actually needed whipping up.

Judging by the frothy response so far, you would think the lost ark of the covenant had just been listed on eBay.

“Paul Newman’s ‘Newman’ could easily be seen as the most important watch there is,” said Andrew Shear, a prominent New York vintage watch dealer. “I could see it selling for $10 million.”

Newman’s 1968 model was a gift from Joanne Woodward, his wife of 50 years, when the actor became consumed with auto racing. The back was engraved, “Drive Carefully Me.”

It isn’t every day that a celebrity’s watch goes up for auction. More importantly, it isn’t every day that a watch belonging to a winner like Paul Newman - beloved actor and racecar driver extraordinaire - goes up for auction. Add to that the fact that this Paul Newman Rolex Daytona watch has -- for decades -- sent collectors running after a few certain models - thereby driving auction prices to extremes - and you have the makings of a record-breaking sale. To that point, the highly publicized watch, just sold at Phillip’s inaugural New York auction, "Winning Icons - Legendary Watches of the 20th Century” for $15.5 million and with the buyer's premium, the final number is $17,752,500. This is a record-setting sale.
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The back of the watch is engraved: “Drive Carefully Me.” It was an endearing sentiment from Woodward to Newman, who wore the watch (purchased new for about $300) faithfully for about a decade and a half. Years later, Newman gave the watch to James Cox, the boyfriend of Newman’s daughter Nell in 1984, when he learned Cox did not own a watch.

The opening bid for the watch was at $1 million with the second bid coming in at $10 million within seconds. It then began climbing in $500,000 increments via phone bids, on line bids and room bids. The bid was up to $14 million and almost as the hammer went down, a few more bids kicked in. It was a slow finish as it came down to two bidders at the end. While the bid was expected to take 30 minutes, but the jump to $10 million cut the bidding to just about 12 minutes.

MrJKLFoams

I know its rolex and very Iconic but 17M is just way too much. I donno if this is a rolex move to make their timepieces more desirable and more iconic. Who knows.

Hubert

Featured, along a NOS case Monaco.

abrod520

That NOS Monaco brought $34,000 before tax + premium.

Calibre11

It's a nice Monaco...not spectacular, but nice. The fact that it has a replacement case marks it down in my book.

Aquagraph

Yeah, I wondered if it was Rolex that bought it myself...