Phillips New York Auction House
Paul Newman
"Big Red" Daytona
Sold for $5,475,000!!!!
Phillips New York Racing Pulse Auction successfully auctioned Paul Newman's BIG RED Daytona for the hammer price of $4.5 Million in London without much of a bidding war which lasted just a few minutes.
It's hard to know for certain who won the auction although Livia Russo who was representing the winning bidder from Geneva, Switzerland bid $4.5 Million! The obvious question is 'Did Rolex buy Paul Newman's watch?' I hope so as this watch ideally belongs in the Rolex Private Museum Collection in Geneva, Switzerland, which one day will hopefully end-up in a public Rolex Museum. If you add in the buyers premium the watch sold for $5,475,000.
Paul Newman's
Holy Grail
"BIG RED"
Reference 6263
Paul Newman's Holy Grail Rolex "Big Red" Daytona picture above. This model of Daytona was nicknamed by collectors "BIG RED" as the "DAYTONA" dial designation is bigger and bolder red than on any other Rolex Daytona models. It was gifted to Paul Newman by his wife Joanne Woodward in 1983 as a gift to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
Coming To Auction
Phillips Auction House
London, England
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Broadcast on Phillips.com
Live Auction from London @ 10AM EST
Aurel Bacs Leading Auction
Ladies & Gentlemen. Start your engines!!! THE Rolex Daytona Cosmograph has become the stuff of legend in popular culture today, in large part due to one man—and that is Academy Award Winning Best Actor, Paul Newman.
Phillips Auction House made Rolex history (watch video above) when they successfully auctioned Paul Newman's exotic white dial Rolex Daytona Reference 6239 (pictured below on Paul's wrist) back in 2017 for $17.8 Million. This auction event not only set an all-time auction price record for a Rolex, but for the price paid for any wrist watch.
This was a game-changing event as now all of a sudden everybody-and-their-mother know about "The Paul Newman Daytona" that sold for close to $18 Million dollars!!!
Understanding What Makes
A Paul Newman Daytona?
My goal with this article is to take a closer look at Paul Newman's "Big Red" Daytona which is soon coming up for auction, as well as to examine ALL the other 5 Rolex Daytona models he wore over four decades from 1971 until he passed away in 2008. Paul Newman also famously wore a stainless steel Rolex Datejust in The Color Of Money.
Context Gives Content Meaning
Before we take a look at Paul Newman's "Big Red" Daytona with a BLACK DIAL, I want to properly contextualize Paul Newman's exotic WHITE dial value proposition (pictured above and below). Paul Newman not only had an unmatched natural swagger and charisma, but supreme sporty style. Paul was the real-deal as a race car driver in the pantheon of Rolex Racing Champions.
Paul Newman received his exotic white dial Daytona (pictured above and below) watch as a gift from his wife, Joanne Woodward in 1971 with an engraving that simply said "DRIVE CAREFULLY ME". Nell Newman is pictured below with her father, Paul Newman when she was younger and he is wearing his now trademark Rolex Daytona with a white exotic dial.
Thirteen years later, in 1984 Paul Newman gave his exotic white dial Rolex Daytona watch to his daughter Nell's boyfriend James Cox who auctioned it with Phillips Auction House in New York in 2017 for $17.8 Million. Nell Newman is pictured below with her boyfriend James Cox in the mid 1980s after Paul Newman gave his exotic white dial Daytona [Reference 6239] to James in 1984, and notice James is wearing it in this photo.
Nell Newman and James Cox remained friends over the decades and James donated most of the auction proceeds to charitable causes including Nell Newman's Foundation. The photo below is from the auction of Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona and we see James Cox with Nell Newman and as we see from the facial expression on Nell's face, she was shocked with how much the watch was going for.
The photo shows Aurel Bacs during the auction of Paul Newman's exotic dial Rolex Daytona. Aurel will be auctioning Paul Newman's 'Big Red' Daytona with the black dial on Saturday, December 12th in London at 10AM EST.
Paul Newman's actual exotic white dial Rolex Daytona [Reference 6239] is pictured below and in the second photo below we see the engraving on the caseback.
The Grail of Rolex Grails: Paul Newman's Exotic White Dial Daytona
This watch was a gift from Paul Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward and on the back she had the watch engraved "DRIVE CAREFULLY ME."
Joanne gave the Rolex Daytona to Paul in early 1971 after he had played a race car driver in the 1969 movie titled "Winning".
In the photo below we see Paul Newman in a publicity shot from Winning. After playing a race car driver in the movie 'Winning' Paul Newman became obsessed with racing and started his own racing career.
Paul Newman is pictured below in a publicity photo from Winning. Ironically, he would go from playing a race car driver to becoming a "winning" race car driver.
Paul Newman completely immersed himself in his racing career and in the photos below we see him wearing his exotic white dial Daytona while racing.
NEWMAN'S OWN
BIG RED ROLEX DAYTONA
Offered by Clea Newman
Paul Newman gave his "Big Red" Rolex Daytona to his daughter, Clea Newman and she is putting it up for auction with the majority of the proceeds going to charities she is a proponent of including the 30 camps for disabled children that her father Paul originally set up. Clea is pictured below in between her mother, Joanne Woodward and father, Paul Newman.
Phillips Auction House in New York will soon be auctioning Paul Newman's "Big Red" Daytona on December 12, 2020 Live from London at 10AM EST / 7AM PST and will be broadcast on Phillips.com and in the Phillips app for mobile devices.
Clean Newman Interview
I interviewed Clea Newman for this article and she was extremely gracious, passionate, eloquent and knowledgable. Clea mentioned her father Paul gave her his watch in 2008 when he was in the hospital in bed. He handed her his "Big Red" Daytona and said, "This is for you." She responded, "I'll take care of it for you until you get out of the hospital." Paul responded, "No. I mean it's for you. I want you to have and wear it!" Soon after her father passed away.
Clea said, "I couldn't wear my dad's watch for a couple of years as every time I would look at it, it would make me really sad as I missed him so much. Years later, I put it on my wrist and would wear it all the time, even when swimming. It was kind of like I had my father with me. It never even dawned on me that it was of any value to anybody but me—for sentimental reasons.
When I learned of my father's exotic white dial Daytona selling for $17.8 Million I was shocked!!! After that I didn't feel comfortable wearing it in public any more. When Covid hit, I realized there were many great non-profit organizations that were struggling so I decided the best thing I could do would be to pass it along to a collector who would appreciate it, and that would allow me to take the proceeds to help many organizations who really need it.
I asked Clea when she reflects back in the rear view mirror of her life what thoughts come to mind about her father? Clea said "When I was young my father was extremely loving, affectionate and caring about me and everything. It was just his nature. He cared deeply and took great care of everything and everybody in his world. As I grew older he remained extremely supportive, and he became my best friend."
I asked Clea about her mother, Joanne Woodward and her relationship with her father Paul Newman. Clea said "It was a truly remarkable love story. Growing up with them as parents I initially took it for granted, but when I was younger, a friend of mine was staying with me for a couple of days. My friend asked me: 'have your parents alway been so affectionate with each other?' At first I had no idea what she was talking about so I asked her to be more specific? She said, your parents are so affectionate with each other!?!! Your mom and dad keep kissing and hugging and affectionally hugging each other!?!!" I had always assumed every married couple was the way they were and that was the first time I realized they loved each other so much.
Clea and I also discussed Paul's Rolex Daytona watch models Joanne gave Paul. Clea said, "It funny as my father was always put forth as a fashion-plate by the press. People would always talk about how well-dressed, color coordinated and stylish he was. The truth is that my father was actually colorblind, and my mother carefully chose all his clothes for him as she had excellent taste."
Punctuality is the Politeness of Kings
Clean continued: "My mother even chose his Rolex Daytona watches and gave them to him as gifts. That being said, my father loved his Rolex watches and would regularly speak about how precise they were as timekeepers. He would always talk about how great they were and would even brag to people about how accurate it was. Sometimes he would call POPCORN (767-1212) on the phone to show people how perfect of a timekeeper his Rolex was!" Clea mentioned her father was alway super prompt and on time and used to always say: "Punctuality is the Politeness of Kings", which was a favorite quote of his from King Louis XVIII of France.
In our conversation we spoke about many other topics including Stan Barrett who Clea adored and said was alway around and was always a very upbeat positive person. She mentioned despite the fact Stan and Paul looked alike she thought it was uncanny how identical Stan appeared as Paul's stunt double in movies.
I mentioned my seminal article I wrote back in 2008 about her father named "Profiles In Coolness: The Complete History Of The Paul Newman Daytona" had a Chapter named "Saint Paul", which in my mind aptly describes her father's extremely gracious and kind philanthropic endeavors. As we see, Clea is a chip off the old block as she is following in her fathers footsteps by donating the majority of the proceeds from this upcoming auction to so many organizations that need it and will utilize it well :-)
PAUL NEWMAN'S BIG RED DAYTONA
Nick Gould was the first to discover and document the superb image below of Paul Newman on the cover of The Sunday Times Magazine which was taken in 1984 that shows Paul Newman wearing his black dial "Big Red" Rolex Daytona (Reference 6263) on an alligator bund fatstrap in a photo taken by the ultra-talented iconic photographer, Annie Leibovitz.
In the photo above—which we see blown up below—we see Paul Newman wearing his "Big Red" Daytona with the screw down pushers unscrewed. My best guess that would explain this unusual behavior is Paul did not want to have to unscrew the pushers every time he used the Chronograph function. I also noticed and documented over the years, the fact Paul Newman wore his "Big Red Daytona" on MANY different bracelets and straps as we witness in the photo above and below where we see him sporting it on a classic Rolex Jubilee Bracelet.
Drive Slowly
An Amazing Love Story
Paul Newman is pictured below with his wife, Joanne Woodward when they were young. Joanne Woodward is Clea and Nell Newman's mother.
