Paul Newman Rolex Daytonas, Found in a Desk, Could Sell for Millions WSJ

[GMTmatt]

Good Morning,
There is an article in the Wall Street Journal today regarding 2-Daytonas owned by The Man himself that are going to auction… Happy reading to the WSJ subscribers!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ne...3b1cfa7?page=1

[1665fan]

Very cool!!!

[Osmin]

How many Daytonas did this guy have? Feels like every year there is a new Paul Newman Daytona for sale

[DaBoncu2902]

I dont believe this kind of story anymore..

[brandrea]

Firewall here can’t read the article.

[Cwillis0001]

I read it somewhere else. Basically his daughter found it in a desk drawer and it's supposedly engraved and photo verified.

[Robf52]

Originally Posted by 1665fan

Very cool!!!

Ditto.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Cwillis0001

I read it somewhere else. Basically his daughter found it in a desk drawer and it's supposedly engraved and photo verified.

Thanks, about all I need to know

[Cronus251]

Behind a paywall.

[douglasf13]

Originally Posted by brandrea

Firewall here can’t read the article.

Try here:

https://archive.ph/kwuTw

[fskywalker]

Cool find!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[ArtNouveau]

What a great philanthropist and all around cool guy. This adds to his mystique to me. He’s always been associated with the four digit Daytonas including the one that sold for $17M, but did not know that he also added 5 and 6 digit versions in his later years.

[Cwillis0001]

Originally Posted by ArtNouveau

What a great philanthropist and all around cool guy. This adds to his mystique to me. He’s always been associated with the four digit Daytonas including the one that sold for $17M, but did not know that he also added 5 and 6 digit versions in his later years.

I also didn't know he continued racing until he was like 70.

[lamnyc]

I had the chance to tried on both Daytonas at Sothebys. Sothebys will be releasing a video soon with Nell Newman speaking about her father's two Daytonas and her mother Joanne's Patek.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by douglasf13

Try here:

https://archive.ph/kwuTw

Thank you very much

[enjoythemusic]

Sweet!

Shameless PLN (his 'racer name') plug: If you want to help Paul's good work, consider donating to The Hole In The Wall Gang camp for children.

https://www.holeinthewallgang.org/

[MrGoat]

Very cool. I love that his wife had the the same script engraved into the caseback of each watch she gave him. I’m going to have to show this to my better half and get the idea brewing in her head.


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

[Cwillis0001]

One of the funniest things I ever read was when he said in an interview that if he knew the salad dressing would be so successful he probably wouldn't have set if up for charity. Not sure if he was kidding or not but it gave me a helluva laugh.

[alllexandru]

I’m pretty sure that many folks here have multiple Daytonas on their collection.

The only difference is that your name is not Paul Newman

Cool find OP thanks for sharing, nice article and find, wonder who much will be the premium on these two

[Chiboy]

Thanks for the link. I must say that I really admire Paul Newman, my parents met him and Joanne up in the Berkshires at the theatre, and I was lucky enough to see and try on his Daytona in L.A. before the big auction. But these don't really do much for me. The $17 M one is the actual watch that he wore because he liked it, and helped jump start the Daytona interest and hype train. It was a beautiful and rare watch that really made Rolex history.

These are just neo-vintage watches that he happened to own and wear.

Pictures or it didn't happen...

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Chiboy

Thanks for the link. I must say that I really admire Paul Newman, my parents met him and Joanne up in the Berkshires at the theatre, and I was lucky enough to see and try on his Daytona in L.A. before the big auction. But these don't really do much for me. The $17 M one is the actual watch that he wore because he liked it, and helped jump start the Daytona interest and hype train. It was a beautiful and rare watch that really made Rolex history.

These are just neo-vintage watches that he happened to own and wear.

Pictures or it didn't happen...

I remember this So friggin cool that you got to wear it

[BNA/LION]

That's Awesome!

[Casey VP-26]

Better hang on to your 16520's

[jaisonline]

Thank you for the share. As a 16520 Daytona own, make me happy. That reference doesn't get enough attention.

note for all. I'm a WSJ sub so use this link (we are able to share articles).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ne...hare_permalink

Paul Newman Rolex Daytonas, Found in a Desk, Could Sell for Millions
Sotheby’s revealed its June auction of the late actor’s effects will now feature two Rolex Daytonas found at his estate

Paul Newman’s Rolex reference 16520 ‘Zenith’ Daytona is one of two watches found at his estate that are heading to auction in June.
PHOTO: JONATHAN FERREY/GETTY IMAGES
Jacob Gallagher hedcutBy Jacob GallagherFollow
March 28, 2023 8:32 am ET

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Years ago, Nell Newman was rooting around for a pencil in the Connecticut home office of her late father, the actor Paul Newman, when she unearthed two horological treasures: a pair of Rolex Daytona watches worn by Newman in his latter years.

“There they were with his driver’s license,” said Ms. Newman. “They were just in a box on his desk.”

Now the pair of chronographs is destined to cause a commotion in the watch world when they’re put up for auction in June at Sotheby’s, part of the sale of more than 300 mementos from the estate of Newman and his wife, actress Joanne Woodward.

Sotheby’s has estimated $500,000 to $1 million per watch, though watch experts say they’re likely to fetch more than a million dollars each.

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One of the most coveted provenances in horology is having been strapped to Newman’s wrist.

“We can tie vintage-watch collecting, vintage-Rolex collecting to him,” said Andrew Shear, a watch dealer in New York City. “The Hustler” actor persistently wore Rolexes throughout his lifetime. He is most closely associated with the Daytona model; his late-1960s version with an “exotic” dial sold for nearly $18 million in 2017.


The actor wore Daytona watches—like this white-gold reference 116519 Daytona that’s heading to auction—throughout his lifetime.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIME ROCK PARK
Mr. Shear speculated that simply because Newman used these watches to track his lap speed or ensure he wasn’t late for dinner, it adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to their value.

Were he still alive, the Hollywood icon may balk at such princely prices. “He did not put his watches on a pedestal,” said Ms. Newman. For her father, watches were “all about keeping time, being on time and timing race cars.”

She recalled that he had the “quirky habit” of betting houseguests a quarter that his Rolex kept better time than whatever was on their wrist. He’d call a “What time is it?” hotline, hold up the phone to prove his watch was more accurate and collect his reward.

The first timepiece, a 1993 Rolex reference 16520 “Zenith” Daytona with a pearly white dial, was awarded to Newman in 1995 when his racing team won the 24 Hours of Daytona Race in Daytona Beach, Fla. At 70, Newman was the oldest person to win that race, and the watch is reverently inscribed: “Rolex at Daytona 24 Paul Newman Rolex Motorsports Man of the Year 1995”.

The championship ticker has come up for auction before. In 1999, Newman donated it to the “Famous Faces” sale held by Antiquorum and Tourneau. Other marquee benefactors included Elton John, Madonna and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Newman’s steel watch hammered at $39,000, which he directed to his charity “The Hole in the Wall Gang,” a camp for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. (The actor, the founder of Newman’s Own, was also known for his philanthropic ventures.)


The 1993 Rolex reference 16520 ‘Zenith’ Daytona was awarded to the actor in 1995, when he became the oldest person to win the 24 Hours of Daytona Race.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S
While that is a relatively meager sum when stacked up against today’s celebrity-watch sales, Newman’s Rolex notched the highest sales price in the auction.

That ’93 Daytona meant so much to Newman that either he or someone in his life later repurchased the watch. So low-key was Newman about his watches that his daughter wasn’t previously aware of the buyback tale. “That was news to me,” she said, “And I thought, what a delightful story.”

The second Rolex is a later model—a 2006 white-gold reference 116519 Daytona on a black leather strap. The watch, at auction for the first time, is one of three known models given to the blue-eyed actor by Ms. Woodward, and bears the inscription “Drive Very Slowly Joanne” on the caseback.

A variation of that gentle chide is inscribed on all the known Rolexes the actress gave to Newman—a reminder to the auto enthusiast to always keep his eyes on the track.


The 2006 white-gold reference 116519 Daytona was a gift to Paul Newman from his wife, the actress Joanne Woodward.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S
Photos from 2008 show Newman wore the white-gold watch at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut during his final racing laps. He died that year.

Recent hammer prices indicate that the watch world has Newman mania. In 2020, Phillips auction house sold a Rolex reference 6263 watch given to Newman by his wife, with the inscription “Drive slowly, Joanne,” for nearly $5.5 million. The sale of Newman’s Rolex Daytona reference 6239 for $17.8 million three years prior remains the high-water mark for his watches.

The actor received the watch from his wife around the late ’60s, coinciding with the start of his time-consuming side-gig behind the steering wheel. (Newman was said to have become a checkered-flag fiend after starring in 1969’s race-car drama “Winning” alongside Ms. Woodward.) As The Wall Street Journal has previously reported, Ms. Woodward likely purchased it for around $300 at Tiffany’s. On its caseback is—you guessed it—the inscription “Drive Carefully, Me.”

Rolex introduced the model in 1963 and stopped production by the early ’70s, with about 14,000 made in total. Of that, only a couple thousand carried the idiosyncratic black, white and red exotic dial of Newman’s model. But photos of Newman brandishing this hard-to-find watch sent collectors on the hunt—sending prices to the ceiling. Eventually, watch aficionados dubbed this scarce style the “Paul Newman” Daytona.

Today, even exotic-dial Daytonas that never touched Newman’s wrist sell for well into the six figures.

Write to Jacob Gallagher at

Originally Posted by GMTmatt

Good Morning,
There is an article in the Wall Street Journal today regarding 2-Daytonas owned by The Man himself that are going to auction… Happy reading to the WSJ subscribers!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-ne...3b1cfa7?page=1

[jaisonline]

2nd WSJ article through my "sub share link"
https://www.wsj.com/story/see-paul-n...ction-ef6ffab5

[Casey VP-26]

The first article that I found years ago about this 16520 which is still on the computer, Part 2 of 3: The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 16520 owned by Paul Newman (article dated Aug.8, 2017) suggests that this 16520 which Paul Newman put in auction for charity was purchased back by Paul Newman himself. The article ended with "Stay tuned for the final part of Paul Newmans Personal Rolex Daytonas" ( Looks like this is it)

[1665fan]

16520 should get a little more love after this…..and after the new one pretty much copied the 16520 dial and hands……

[jaisonline]

Originally Posted by 1665fan

16520 should get a little more love after this…..and after the new one pretty much copied the 16520 dial and hands……

100% agree.

[swish77]

Originally Posted by 1665fan

16520 should get a little more love after this…..and after the new one pretty much copied the 16520 dial and hands……

Yes, this will definitely boost 16520s, which were already doing pretty darn well.

I've read other similar comments about the dial on the new 126500, but I just don't see that, especially not on the black dial versions. Maybe slightly more similar, but the symmetrical sub-dials on the 16520s are such a big difference compared to the modern version. And then there's that new bezel, which is ugly, IMHO.