Watch of the Day · 2026-07-31 · from the archive

Rolex Daytona 'Paul Newman'

Ref. 6239 · Stainless Steel — one documented result from the 1,156-lot MostExpensiveWatches auction record, featured today.

Documented result
$17,752,500
Phillips New York · 2017
Rolex in the corpus
71 documented results · this is the brand record

Paul Newman's personal Daytona, gifted by his wife Joanne Woodward in the late 1960s. Caseback inscribed 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME'. The watch that defined the exotic-dial Daytona category.

The 2017 sale of Paul Newman’s personal Rolex Daytona reference 6239 for $17,752,500 at Phillips New York established a brand record among 71 documented Rolex results. Gifted by Joanne Woodward in the late 1960s and inscribed "DRIVE CAREFULLY ME," this stainless steel watch defined the exotic

Full lot record & sources All Rolex results The Grail Index

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2026-08-10 Vacheron Constantin Chronograph $150,000 · Phillips Geneva · 2016
2026-08-09 Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° $225,806 · Phillips Hong Kong · 2016
2026-08-08 Greubel Forsey Balancier Convexe S² Carbon $176,400 · Christie's Dubai · 2025
2026-08-07 Urwerk Maltese Falcon $133,197 · Phillips Geneva · 2024

About this series

Every day MostExpensiveWatches features one documented auction result from its comp corpus — hammer prices with primary sources, the record layer behind the Grail Index and the daily Price Index. Machine-readable: /data/watch-of-the-day.json. Cite as “MostExpensiveWatches Watch of the Day”.

Compiled: 2026-07-31T00:15:27.360565+00:00