Rolex given away by Paul Newman becomes the world's most expensive at $17million .

 

A Rolex that once belonged to Paul Newman set a world record when it sold for £13.6million.

The timepiece had been estimated at $1million but fetched $17.8million – making it the most expensive ever sold at auction .

The stainless-steel Daytona was bought by an anonymous bidder on the phone at Phillips auctioneers, in New York.
The watch was originally given to Oscar-winner Newman by wife Joanne Woodward at the time he was filming the racing movie “Winning” in 1968.

His use of it sparked a craze among watch fans, who lent his name to that particular style of Rolex dial.

Phillips said: “Demand skyrocketed for all models of Daytona, making it perhaps the most widely sought after collectors’ watch up to the present day.”

ames Cox - a former boyfriend of Newman’s daughter, Nell - put the original 1968 “Paul Newman” Daytona up for auction.

He decided to sell the piece, in part, to raise money for the Nell Newman Foundation, where he serves as treasurer.

The charity supports causes including the environment, sustainable agriculture and education.

He said the actor gave him the watch - a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, reference #6239 - in 1984.

Recalling how he was gifted it, Mr Cox said he was helping repair a treehouse on the Newman property when the actor approached and asked the time.

 “I said, you know, ‘a hair past a freckle,’ or some comment meaning ‘I don’t have a watch,’” Mr Cox, now 52, said.

“To which he replied: ‘Well, here, here’s this watch. If you remember to wind it, it tells pretty good time.’”

Despite its worth, Newman was said by his wife to have very little attachment to the watch.

“As far as he was concerned, it was a tool,”“He definitely didn’t have a strong attachment to things. Mrs Newman said.

Although a modern Rolex Cosmograph Daytona costs £9,500 today, the models of the ’60s and ’70s cost about £190.

Newman,died in September 2008. He was 83.

Culled from Daily Mirror