A watch that set records for its almost $18 million sale in auction.

Paul Newman was an American actor, born in Cleveland in 1925, who served in WWII in the US Navy Air Corps before returning home to play football at Kenyon College. After working in his family business for some time he eventually enrolled at Yale to study drama. His Broadway debut was in 1953 in Picnic where he also met his future wife. He starred in many major films especially in the latter half of the 20th century

More in relation to the Rolex Daytona, Mr .Newman was also a successful race car driver and owner of his own food company.

Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sprots Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in Open-wheel Indy Carracing.In the automotive world he was a professional racer and once part of the Rolex team, he also participated in the 1979 Le Mans race.

Paul Newman was a forceful celebrity for much of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, this star power helping fuel the demand for his own timepieces.

According to Philips, Newman first came to own the ref. 6239 Rolex Daytona after his wife Joanne Woodward bought it for him from Tiffany’s in New York as a gift, supposedly in 1968. This would have been the same timepiece that Newman became famous for wearing throughout his time as an actor in the 1970s and 1980s.

The ref. 6239 in question is engraved “Drive Carefully Me” on the caseback and features to manual winding caliber 722. Its previous owner was Paul Newman’s daughter’s ex-boyfriend, a man by the name of James Cox. He was given the watch as a gift in 1984 by Paul Newman, only deciding to sell it 33 years later in 2017; 9 years after Newman’s death. Cox is said to have contacted his lawyer who eventually put him in touch with Phillips for the sale. 

In June 2008, it was widely reported in the press that he had been diagnosed with lung Cancer.

Newman died at his home in Westport, Connecticut on the morning of September 26, 2008.