Rolex - The Legend, a 6263 Lemon Daytona
Every auction season, we see the same lots everywhere, a 2499, a 1518, a few 116500 and Oyster perpetuals, someone getting rid of his entire Journe collection because he couldn’t get a fifth chronomètre bleu to pay for his weekend in Geneva at the auctions…
But then there’s The Legend – a watch so mythical, so important, that it’s a pleasant surprise to see it return to auction a mere 5 years after its auction debut.
To understand the importance of The Legend, we need to have a very quick look at the Paul Newman lineage.
The Daytona was introduced in the Rolex lineup following the reference 6238 with the reference 6239. A simple Chronograph with pump pushers, a steel tachymeter bezel and a screw down crown (not an oyster case though !). Ref. 6239 was made with a variety of different dial types (mk1, mk1,5…) – but most importantly it came in the classic and the exotic variation aka “Paul Newman”.
Paul Newman himself was an owner of a “Paul Newman” Daytona – ref. 6239. This watch sold for north of 17M$ back in 2017. Despite this, Oyster Daytonas (meaning with screwdown pushers) have always been more appreciated and sacralised by collectors due to their slightly more imposing size on the wrist. The gold variations of the Paul Newman Daytonas are the most sought after but also the rarest.
FYI : The Paul Newman name was given to these dials by Italian dealers to romanticise these watches that weren’t popular in those days. The Paul Newman name brought a certain stigma and allure to the watch – still adored by all today.
The rarity of Paul Newman dials as everyone knows was due to how unpopular this dial configuration was at the time - most favouring the clean, pure aesthetic of non Paul Newman dials. But for the gold Newman, the rarity factor is increased further by the price difference between steel and gold. A gold Daytona back in the day would cost you up to 4 times more than a steel example.
The gold daytonas were made in varrying dial types – black (nicknamed JPS as an ode to the John Player Special F1 cars) – champagne… and Lemon.
A key difference between a champagne dial and a lemon dial are the markings in the subcounters – on a champagne dial these markings are tone on tone, whereas on a lemon, the markings are white and contrast brightly with the golden tone of the dial. The colour is of course very different but depending on the patina of a champagne one could confuse the two.
Lemon dials are much rarer than black and champagne and for the longest time, collectors didn’t believe a screw down Lemon PN Daytona even existed. Throwback to 2016 when The Legend appeared at auction for the first time. This was huge news in the vintage Rolex world – the dial, signed ROC (Rolex Oyster Cosmograph) confirms this was not just a dial swap from a pump pusher Daytona, but a matching dial for a screw-down Daytona. At the time, the Legend was the most valuable Daytona ever sold at auction, only to be topped the following year by Paul Newman’s very own.
Only three Oyster Lemons are known but the Legend is the most renowned as it was the first to be identified and approved - and according to many, the one in the best condition (having not seen all three I cannot agree or disagree with this).
The Legend is a watch that most of us mere mortals will never get to own, but experiencing it on the wrist, knowing its history - its rarity, and the condition it’s in… It really does have something magical about it, an emotion I’ve rarely felt with other watches, even less so with a watch that isn’t a Patek.