There are rare watches, and there are legends.
Sometimes, indeed, too often these terms are misused, but on November 7, 2022, a watch that deserves this appellation was sold at Christie’s.
This is a Rolex Daytona Paul Newman 6263 with millerighe buttons. Of course, so far this is certainly a rare watch, but not yet such as to merit the nickname of legend.
However, add to these elements the fact that the case is in 18-karat yellow gold, the dial in question is lemon-colored, and it is one of only three publicly known. There, perhaps the combination explains the nickname given to it: The Legend.
The lemon color Paul Newman dial
Let us now take a step back to better understand the popularity of Paul Newman dials.
Present in references 6239, 6241, 6262, 6263, 6264, and 6265, they were initially not particularly popular with the public, but at some point in the 1980s Italian collectors began to associate this type of dial with the American actor Paul Newman, and, of course, when his very watch sold for nearly $18 million in 2017 its popularity exploded (you can read about it in detail here).
They are distinguishable mainly by the presence of an outer band in a contrasting color to the dial, the replacement of the baton hour markers with cube hour markers, and the difference in typeface for the subdials, which are also contrasting and take up art deco-inspired graphics.
The dial of the watch in question features a lemon color with a contrasting black band and counters, and matches well with the warm yellow gold tone of the case. Unlike the more common ivory-colored PN dials, which featured counter graphics in the same shade as the dial interior, in this case we find white graphics, which stand out from the other elements, enhancing readability.
On the back instead we find the name of the company that created these particular dials, Singer. In fact, at that time the Geneva-based company did not produce all components in-house but relied on outside manufacturers for some components, as in this case.
It was a time when Rolex loved to experiment, with unusual shapes and colors (we remember the Stella dials) and we hope that this creative nature of the maison will return sooner or later, who knows, maybe the next Watches & Wonders will hold some surprises for us.
Three samples known
Before May 12, 2013, no such watch was believed to exist, but at a recurring auction dedicated to prestigious timepieces, the famous auction house Antiquorum beat this watch for 841,300 Swiss francs, at the time an all-time record for a Daytona.
After passing through the most important private collections halfway around the world, it was auctioned a second time at Christie’s on November 7, 2022, almost a decade after the auction that made it legendary, and reached the incredible sum of 3,414,000 Swiss francs.
In addition to the watch in question, two additional examples in this particular configuration came to light after the first appearance in Geneva, the first featured in Pucci Papaleo’s book “Ultimate Rolex Daytona” and the second sold on May 14, 2017 by Phillips for 3,722,000 Swiss francs.
These three specimens we can place them in the very early stages of production of reference 6263 thanks to the serial numbers, respectively 2’330’402 for the watch sold by Christie’s, 2’330’*** for the one featured in Pucci Papaleo’s book, and 2’330’529 for the third and last, sold by Phillips in 2017.
Thus all three can be traced back to 1969 and even predate some 6262 and 6264. Moreover given the proximity of the different serials, within a range of 127 numbers, there is a possibility that they were even assembled on the same day, making their discovery even more incredible. A further detail that allows us to place them temporally in the correct period is the presence on the caseback of the reference 6239, common to all the first 6263s produced.
Now a question arises: will there be more or are we looking at the only three specimens ever to come out of the manufacture?
The movement
This reference is powered by the Valjoux caliber 727, a very reliable hand-wound column-wheel chronograph movement, which was the obvious choice for a watch dedicated to the racing world. This was later replaced by a modified version of the Zenith El Primero, for remember that Rolex introduced an in-house chronograph movement only in 2000.
The condition is exceptional for all three known specimens, a detail that makes these watches even more valuable, given their age as well.
Our opinion
We can only be glad to have the chance to see timepieces whose existence was doubted, all the more so because in addition to extreme rarity they are also successful from a design point of view, which is cohesive and attractive, and it almost begs the question of why Rolex decided to produce so few of them.
Congratulations to the lucky collectors and let’s hope to see more cases in the future of finding watches believed lost or never made!
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Sources:
Christie’s – Auction Catalogue “Live Auction 20940 Rare Watches”, 2022.
Antiquorum – Auction Catalogue “Important Modern & Vintage Pieces”, 2013.
Phillips – Auction Catalogue “The Geneva Watch Auction: FIVE”, 2017.
