The American actor Paul Newman, who died in 2008, was also an accomplished racing driver and lover of fine watches: Two of his Rolex Daytonas will be auctioned in New York in June, Sotheby’s announced on Tuesday, which expects a million dollars for each.
Even at that price, we’re a long way from the record sale of a wristwatch auctioned off by the New York house Phillips in October 2017: another Rolex Daytona, also owned by Paul Newman, that sold for $17.8 million in minutes.
One of the two Swiss watches auctioned by Sotheby’s on June 9 had belonged to the Hollywood actor for half a century, owned by his wife, American actress Joanne Woodward, during a test of the famous “24 Hours of Daytona”, a long-distance – Auto racing offered at the Daytona Beach, Florida race track.
Estimated between $500,000 and $1 million, the Rolex Daytona jewel with a black dial and leather strap is engraved in capital letters “drive very slow”, signed “Joanne”.
The other Rolex “Zenith” Daytona, a nearly identical model estimated at the same price but with a white dial and metal bracelet, was offered to Newman for his team’s victory in the 1995 “24 Hours of Daytona”.
The actor was 70 at the time, making him the oldest racing driver to ever win a race, according to a Sotheby’s press release.
The auction house, owned by French, Moroccan and Israeli tycoon Patrick Drahi, announced in late February that it would be auctioning 300 items belonging to legendary Hollywood couple Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman in June.
They were married from 1958 until the legendary actor, who won an Academy Award for Martin Scorcese’s The Color of Money (1986), died in 2008 at the age of 83 from lung cancer. Joanne Woodward, 93, also received an Oscar in 1958 for “The Three Faces of Eve”.
Sotheby’s is “proud” to offer for sale these two Daytona watches, the 60th anniversary of which the Swiss luxury watchmaker Rolex celebrates this year, “models that have been worn by the Hollywood legend and that tell of the eternal love he has shared with his wife Joanne and his immense passion for motorsport”.