The Rolex That Cost A Staggering $1.5 Million (And Broke A UK Record)
Paul Newman has plenty of cachet for those who like dreamy #archive shots of Seventies knitwear – and those who like dreamy #archive watches too. For this weekend, a Sotheby's auction saw another record broken by a Rolex nicknamed after the late Butch Cassidy star, and it fetched a colossal $1,545,723.
Which means it's the most expensive watch ever at a UK auction, with the Paul Newman ref. 6264 'John Player Special' smashing its original $400,000 to $800,000 estimate out of the park. Based upon an 18-karat yellow gold bracelet and case, the Cosmograph model takes its sobriquet not purely from a troublingly inexpensive cigarette brand, but from a very expensive race car sponsored by said cigarette brand: the Lotus Formula 1 John Player Special. That means lots of black and gold, with only around 10 in existence according to in-house experts at Sotheby's.
"The record-breaking sale of this Daytona JPS summarises in many ways the takeaways of this pivotal season: the eagerness of collectors to embrace new ways to transact with us, their resolute confidence to buy and sell high-value lots online and, of course, the unabated appetite for freshness, quality and rarity," Sam Hines, international head of Sotheby's watches, told Forbes. "It has been thrilling for us to steer this transformation.”
Rarer still is the fact it was on-sale in the first place. During its auction between the 24 to 31 of July, the ref. 6264 JPS quickly soared in price over 17 bids from five individual buyers – and it's in good company, with Sotheby's recently enjoying a $3.27 million sale in Hong Kong but three weeks ago.
Yep. That was a Paul Newman-esque Daytona, too.
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