Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 6239 “Paul Newman”: Fast Times

This is as good as it gets. The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 6239. The Paul Newman… the very reference He wore through a four-decade career in motorsports. The acting? Yeah, there was that, but Paul Newman and the Rolex Daytona will be forever tied to endurance sports car racing.

As it should be.

From his first taste of auto racing while filming 1969’s “Winning” to his final professional race in 2005, Paul Newman felt the same passion for motorized competition that drives millions of fans to Le Mans, Daytona Beach, Watkins Glen, Sebring, Spa, and Road Atlanta each year.

Unlike those millions, and even many who *spend* millions to live the dream, Paul Newman had real talent behind the wheel. His four SCCA National titles, 1979 class victory at LeMans, and his swan song overall win at the 1995 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona attest to that.

Incidentally, Newman received a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona as the official winner’s gift for that last triumph… irony. Besides, when you’ve already got an honest-to-god 6239 “Exotic Dial,” the Zenith-powered Daytona seems almost like a daily beater.

And if you *don’t* own a Rolex Daytona 6239 “Paul Newman,” here’s your chance. These dials were rarities even in their day (early 1960-1970s), and many were catastrophically swapped for conventional dials during service; that was before Newman was photographed wearing his private example and collector interest exploded. Keep in mind that the manual-wind Rolex Daytonas are rare watches as a class. Once the condition, provenance, and “Paul Newman” mystique of this example are added to the equation, its exceptional pedigree becomes clear.

Today, bogus Rolex Daytona “Paul Newmans” are a dime a dozen. Damaged watches, incomplete watches, and suspect watches are common. A true time capsule “survivor” Paul Newman Rolex Daytona is more than a scarcity; it’s a full-blown grail. But a time capsule vetted by two major auction houses AND bearing the same reference number/dial combo worn by Paul Newman…

… there may not be a slogan or buzzword strong enough for that kind of hardware, but the unicorn exists, and you can see it in glorious high-resolution images on www.watchuwant.com. The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Paul Newman”: gentlemen, start your engines.