Paul Newman’s Daytona Timepiece Up for Auction This Fall

One of Paul Newman’s most prized timepieces is going up for auction this fall.

The late American actor’s Rolex Daytona Cosmograph will go on the block at Phillip’s first-ever watch auction in New York on Oct. 26, according to WSJ. Magazine. The watch is expected to exceed a $1 million bid. A significant portion of the proceeds will go toward the Nell Newman Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Nell Newman (daughter of Paul) after her father died of lung cancer at age 83 in 2008.

The Rolex Daytona Cosmograph was purchased by Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward, for $300 in the late ‘60s. She bought the timepiece as a gift for Newman, with the phrase “Drive Carefully Me” engraved on the back, since it was around the time of his racing career.

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In addition to being an IndyCar racer, Newman starred in films like The Hustler (1961), Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Nobody’s Fool (1994). He won an Oscar for the 1986 movie The Color of Money.

Newman gave his coveted watch to daughter Nell Newman’s close friend and former boyfriend, James Cox, in 1984.

Cox didn’t realized how valuable it was until he attended a trade show and “A man who didn’t speak much English tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Paul Newman watch, Paul Newman watch.’ I thought, What the heck? How does this guy know I’ve got Paul Newman’s watch? He obviously was a watch enthusiast and saw that I had the Daytona model, That kind of clued me in, so I did a little research,” Cox told WSJ Magazine in the June/July issue, which hits newsstands June 3.

Cox told the glossy that he decided to sell the watch because “If Paul were alive, and I went to him and said, ‘Hey, you know that watch you gave me years ago? Turns out it’s super iconic and valuable,’ “I think his response would be, ‘Well, what are you going to do with it, kid?’'”