Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few months, it can’t have escaped your attention that Paul Newman’s legendary Rolex Cosmograph Daytona is going to hit the auction stand in New York, with some industry experts said that it will break all known records and become the most expensive Rolex ever sold.
In order to do that, it will have to outshine the replica watches belonging to the last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam that achieved a staggering $5 million earlier this year. So, how could that watch, a one-of-a-kind, diamond-enhanced piece belonging to bona fide royalty, potentially be beaten into second place by a comparatively mass produced example that the replica Rolex was struggling to even give away when it was introduced in the late sixties? 
Of course, the answer is the original owner. With his insouciant good looks, understated masculinity and hard working intelligence, he was the living personification of everything the Rolex poured into the Daytona.
That first generation model, given to Newman by his wife Joanne Woodward to mark the start of his professional motor racing career in 1972, has been cited as releasing the vintage cheap watch market as we know it today.
The mythical example going under the hammer on October 26th, in Phillips’ maiden New York auctions, is the first Daytona cheap replica watch to be sold that was worn by the man himself. Will it break the record? Time will tell the truth. For now, let’s take a quick look at what might just be the most significant vintage watch in the world.
Paul Newman began a life-long love affair with motor racing during the filming of the 1969 movie Winning. While it was extremely a forgettable outing, it ignited a passion for the sport that saw him turn pro three years later after training with the likes of double Indianapolis 500 winner Roger Ward. Before long, Newman was scheduling his movies around races, preferring the genuine excitement of the track to the phoniness of Hollywood. 
And he was no slouch. He finished fifth in the replica Rolex Daytona 24-hours in 1977 and second at Le Mans two years later. He still keeps the record for the oldest driver to win an officially sanctioned race when, in 1995, he was co-driver for the winning team at the Rolex 24-hour race at age of 70th.
That legendary watch, cutely engraved on the back with ‘Drive Carefully, Me’ by his anxious spouse, accompanied him as a good luck charm throughout his early career until the mid-eighties.