Two cheap fake Rolex Daytonas from Paul Newman headline the Sotheby’s “Important Watches” auction in New York on June 9th. No, they’re not “Paul Newman” perfect replica Rolex Daytonas, but Sotheby’s has placed an estimate of $500,000 to $1 million on each of the modern watches.
The first watch is a “Zenith” Daytona ref. 16520 that was given to Newman in 1995 when his team placed first in its class in the 24 Hours of Swiss made fake Rolex Daytona race. At 70, Paul was the oldest race winner, and the Daytona is engraved “Rolex Daytona 24 Paul Newman Rolex Motorsport Man of the Year 1995” on the caseback. The 1:1 fake Zenith Rolex Daytona actually appeared at auction four years later in 1999 at Antiquorum’s “Famous Faces” sale, where it sold for $39,000 (the best-performing lot of the sale), with all the proceeds benefitting charity. The 1999 auction catalog is a true time capsule, also featuring high quality replica watches from Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld, and Madonna; the second-best performer of the auction was a Franck Muller perpetual calendar chronograph donated by the self-proclaimed Master of Complications on behalf of Robert Redford.
At some point after that sale, Sotheby’s says that a close family member gave the aaa quality replica Rolex Daytona back to Paul. Newman’s daughter, Nell Newman, discovered it years later when going through his home office in Connecticut. Now, it’s one of more than 300 items that Sotheby’s is offering as part of its “World of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman,” a series of auctions spanning several departments over the next few weeks.
The second UK Rolex Daytona super clone for sale is a white-gold ref. 116519, this one given by Joanne Woodward, Newman’s wife, in 2006 and inscribed with a variation of the now-famous (to watch lovers) “Drive Very Slowly Joanne” on the caseback. It’s one of three known watches that she gave to Newman over the years. The other two have appeared at auction in the past few years: his Swiss movement fake Rolex 6263 sold for $5.475 million in 2020, and of course, the Paul Newman Paul Newman 6239 sold for a then-record-breaking $17.7 million in 2017. According to Sotheby’s, this is the only precious-metal Daytona Newman ever owned, and this was the last watch ever gifted to him by Woodward before he died in 2008. But just a month before his death, he took his final racing laps in his GT1 Corvette at Lime Rock Park, with this Daytona strapped to his wrist.
While this pair of luxury fake Rolex Daytonas won’t touch the results of the vintage 6239 or even the 6263, the estimates of $500,000 to $1 million seem conservative. Of the two, the white-gold cheap replica Rolex Daytona given by Woodward feels like the more desirable; it’s part of the lineage of watches she gave to her husband, dating all the way back to that original Paul Newman. Sure, it’s modern, and he only owned it for a couple of years, so it doesn’t have the patina of memories that his older watches do. However, it’s still special as a token of one of the more famous Hollywood relationships of the 20th century and one that practically created the modern watch-collecting market.
I’ll be watching to see if it can top the high water mark for a modern Rolex Daytona super clone online uk, the $3.27 million achieved by the unique platinum example with lapis dial sold in 2020.
If, like me, these best quality fake Rolex Daytonas are a bit outside your budget, there are a few other Newman pieces in the sale: there’s a presentation Tiffany & Co. alarm with Paul Newman’s name inscribed on the bottom with no reserve, a gorgeous white gold copy Patek Philippe cushion-shaped watch owned by Joanne Woodward (est. $2,000 to 5,000), and even Newman’s suit worn during his last racing laps.