Legendary American actor Paul Newman, who died in 2008, was an accomplished car racer and loved fine watches: two of his Rolex Daytonas will be auctioned in New York in June, Sotheby’s announced on Tuesday, valued at millions of dollars. Every.
Even at this price, we’ll be far from the record sale for a watch sold at auction by New York house Phillips in October 2017: another Rolex Daytona also owned by Paul Newman and sold for $17.8 million in minutes.
One of the two Swiss watches auctioned by Sotheby’s on June 9 was presented to the Hollywood actor by his wife of half a century, American actress Joan Woodward, during the famous “24 Hours of Daytona” trial. On the circuit of Daytona Beach, Florida.
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Estimated at $500,000 to a million dollars, the Rolex Daytona jewel with a black dial and leather strap features the inscription “Drive Very Slow” in large letters, signed “Joanne.”
Another Rolex “Zenith” Daytona, an almost identical model priced at the same price, but with a white dial and a metal bracelet, was awarded 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 win the race, according to a Sotheby’s press release.
AFP
The auction house, owned by French, Moroccan and Israeli President Patrick Drahi, announced in late February that it would auction 300 items belonging to famous Hollywood couple Joan Woodward and Paul Newman in June.
They lived together from 1958 until his death in 2008 of lung cancer at age 83, an Oscar winner for Martin Scorsese’s (1986) “The Color of Money.” Joan Woodward, 93, also won an Oscar in 1958 for “The Three Faces of Eve.”
Sotheby’s said it was proud to offer these two Daytona watches for sale, in which Swiss luxury watchmaker Rolex celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, “telling of the models worn by Hollywood legends and the eternal love he shared with his wife Joan and his passion for motor racing”.
