A Daytona Cosmograph from Rolex has recently made a staggering £673,000 at an auction in Christie’s, Geneva; a figure which has been described as being ‘a record price’. The timepiece is a 1969 ‘Paul Newman’ model, and was purchased at an occasion dubbed as the ‘Rolex Daytona Lesson One’. This gathering was a celebratory sale in honour of the first 50 years of the Daytona chronograph’s phenomenally successful tenure. The 50 timepieces distributed at this occasion have sold for a combined figure of £8.2 million, and more than 400 people were on hand to observe this overwhelming spectacle.
The connection of the Daytona Chronograph with Paul Newman originated in the 1969 film ‘Winning’, where Newman portrayed the racing driver Frank Capua. Such was Newman’s enthusiasm for high quality racing that he elected to take up the pastime himself. His wife, Joanne Woodward, procured him a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona to commemorate this newfound passion, and Newman wore the timepiece for the remainder of his days. The exact model sported by Newman went out of production some 40 years ago, although its spirit lives on in the many contemporary examples within the current Rolex Daytona family.
The Cosmograph Daytona represents an iconic watch in Rolex’s venerated history. Taking its name from the famous speedway in Florida, the Daytona became a fixture in the racing world due to its capabilities to function as a stopwatch. With then unmatched accuracy to a miniscule one fifth of a second, a trio of smaller chronograph dials on the Daytona also allowed it to display 60 second, 30 minute and 12 hour readings that were optimally suited to record the various distances within a motorsport race. The alliance between Rolex and high performance racing has continued until the present day, although it is far from the only association enjoyed by Rolex in the world of premium sports.
The colossal figure raised by this Daytona has underlined Rolex’s unparalleled significance within the world at large. The Swiss luxury brand has also been featured in recent news due to the extension of its partnership with The European Tour golf event. Rolex has been in collaboration with The European Tour since 1997, when it first began to serve as the official timekeeper, and this latest arrangement will cement Rolex’s place alongside this prestigious competition until at least 2022. Rolex’s influence is broad enough to now cover each and every golf Tour, and their constant status as an in-demand partner betrays the considerable esteem in which they are universally held.
A broad selection of Rolex watches is undoubtedly one of the crowing glories within the extensive collection of Swiss luxury watches offered here at Banks Lyon. As a registered Rolex stockist, all of our Rolex timepieces are authenticated by the brand name itself, and our stock includes some of the most exciting recent models to be unveiled in the world of watchmaking. The extreme longevity that is intrinsic to the Rolex standards of workmanship also means that they regularly outlast the requirements of one owner, as was the case with the ‘Paul Newman’ model sold at Christie’s, so be sure to scrutinise our used watches page to avoid missing out on some remarkable opportunities.
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