Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo presents the “Racing Pulse” classic watch auction, in addition to the iconic Monaco watch worn by Steve McQueen in the 1971 film “Le Mans” selling for $2,208,000 – equivalent to over HK$17 million, another highlight was the Paul Newman Big Red Daytona 6263, which sold for $5,475,000 (including commission), becoming the top-selling item of the event.
Just like the case of McQueen Monaco, the event played a special short film before the start, introducing the Paul Newman Daytona, which is considered the most precious in history. Phillips set the watch with an estimated value of at least $1 million, auctioneer Aurel Bacs started at $800,000, and everyone was surprised when the first bid was already at $2 million. The watch immediately doubled its estimated value, although the situation of exceeding the estimated value was already expected, the first bid breaking the estimated value still surprised the audience.
Following several rounds of bidding, the highest-priced watch in history was once again auctioned in 2017 – the first-generation Daytona 6239 owned by Paul Newman, with the inscription “Drive Carefully Me” on the case back by Joanne Woodward. Phillips Geneva regional director Nathalie Monbaron significantly increased the price from $2.8 million to $3.2 million for the client. After several counter bids, online bidding from the United States pushed the watch to $4.2 million. Ultimately, after McQueen Monaco’s “defeated” Livia Russo bid $4.5 million, and the other two parties withdrew from the auction, Livia Russo’s husband and auctioneer Aurel Bacs hammered down the final price and declared the sale.
In the end, this Paul Newman 6263 Daytona was sold for a hammer price of $5,475,000 – equivalent to approximately HK$42,438,367. Not only did it receive immediate acclaim, but it also became the third highest-selling Paul Newman Daytona watch to date, as well as currently holding the record for the highest selling price for a Daytona 6263 model. As reported earlier, although this watch does not possess all the crazy “Paul Newman Daytona” features that are highly sought after in the market, its significance to Paul Newman himself, his wife Joanne Woodward, their daughter Clea Newman, and the entire family is indescribable. It is believed that it is for this reason that this auction achieved such remarkable results.
When it comes to the Paul Newman Daytona, there is actually another watch in the same series – the 18K gold Paul Newman Daytona 6239 – which ultimately sold for $529,200. This watch is also one of the 300 Rolex watches ever made in 18K gold, and it even comes with the original champagne gold dial. Its rarity is truly unimaginable, as over the years, only one watch, known as the Golden Pagoda, has appeared at auction. This particular watch was discovered by Phillips to have a serial number only four digits away from the Golden Pagoda.
The final total sales value of this auction reached $27,584,570 USD, with Phillips achieving a 99% auction success rate and a 99.5% success rate based on estimated values, marking a very remarkable achievement in the auction history of 2020.
