Rolex Mythbuster
Paul Newman Submariner?
38MM Reference 6538
38MM Reference 6538
Since we have recently seen so much excitement about Paul Newman's Daytona coming to market, I have been combing through my unpublished archives, looking for more clues and details regarding The History Of The Paul Newman Daytona. As a result, I stumbled into this fascinating photo I have never published, which shows Paul Newman hugging his wife, Joanne Woodward, and it appears he might be wearing a Rolex Submariner "Big Crown" Reference 6538, or a watch that looks very similar.
I put together the photo below that shows a Rolex Submariner 6538 Big Crown on the right side, next to a photo of the watch Paul Newman is wearing in the photo above. In the photo below, for comparison sake, I took the photo of Paul Newman's watch and flipped it around 180 degrees, in order to more accurately be able to compare it to the photo next to it, and all the tell tale characteristics seem to match with the exception act the bezel on Paul's watch looks narrower. When you look the photo above, the watch Paul is wearing looks a little bit smaller than a Submariner, but it is important to consider the Rolex Submariner Reference 6538 was only 38MM.
Just for frame of reference, in the photo below we see Sir Sean Connery wearing his Rolex Submariner Reference 6538 Big Crown in the photo below, which was taken on the set of the first James Bond movie, titled, Dr. No.
Chuck Yeager also wore a Rolex Submariner Reference 6538, which is pictured below on his wrist.
It turns out Paul Neman is NOT wearing a Rolex in the photo at the top of this story. I learned this fact from Nick Gould, who wrote in and said:
"Hi Jake,
Thought you may like to know about the dive watch on the wrist of Paul Newman. I had the same thoughts initially.
Regards,
Nick
Nick included a link to his article that was published on Deployant.com, titled, "A Follow Up: Paul Newman's Waltham/Blancpain Bathyscaphe Diver." In this brilliantly researched article Nick successfully separates the fact from the fiction and positively IDs this watch. The photos below are from Nick's superb article that shows Paul Newman wearing what appears to be a Rolex Submariner 6538. I added this information to my article named, "The Complete History Of Rolex Mythbusting: Separating Rolex Fact From Fiction."
