Paul Newman's record-breaking watch

behold a brand new Rolex teal Daytona yours for $12,500 a mere trifle compared to the price that the watch that was once Newman's Own just fetched Serena Altschul tells us all about it a little over a week ago at the Philips auction house in New York City a trove of 50 wristwatches was up for sale but the star of the show with its own special room and a high-tech security system was a certain Rolex auctioneer Corral back this is too many the holy grail it's something that started an entire movement for decades actor Paul Newman wore this Rolex Cosma Graf Daytona [Music] he took up auto racing off filming the 1969 film winning in which he starred alongside his wife John would work she gave her husband a watch to celebrate his new hobby inscribed with a hidden message here beautifully engraved on the back it reads drive carefully me so sweeping Joanne the Rolex Kozma Graff Daytona wasn't a best-seller when it debuted in 1963 but worn on the wrist of Paul Newman it became the epitome of cool in fact it became known as the Paul Newman watch but after the stars death in 2008 the watch that started it all seemed to have vanished I was about 15 years old and I was at a racetrack enter James Cox who met Newman in the late 70s I loved cars and racing and Paul was racing I spotted Paul sitting after he had just gotten off the track with his car and he just gestures for me to come under this barrier to get a better photo of the car the story takes another turn a few years later when at college Cox met a girl named Nell Potts I think the first time I saw her at school I'm standing in her driveway and she comes in and she she's driving in her car and she pulls the you brake and spins the car around and pops out of the door and she's got a six-pack of st. Pauli girl and I'm like wow I want to get to know her that girls for me but what he didn't know was that Nell Potts was a stage name and only later when they were dating did he learn her real name Nell Newman he also got to know her father one summer I offered to rebuild this tree house it was kind of a classic feature on the and then it'd be just Paul and I and I would work on the tree house during the day and he would often come over at the end of the night and just check on my progress he comes over one one day and he says James you know what time it is and I'm like no I'm not wearing a watch and he says well he takes his Rolex offices if you remember to wine this it tells a great time and hands it to me and then he proceeds to show me how to wind it and took a little time with me for years Cox wore the watch even after he and now and talk he discovered the Rolex had taken on a legendary life of its own which is why he decided to sell the watch in part to benefit the charitable foundation of his lifelong friend Nell Newman and I have a commission bid at 1 million US dollars 10 days ago buyers from around the world got their chance to bid on the Paul Newman watch 13 million 14 million six hundred thousand 15 million final price seventeen point eight million dollars the highest price ever paid for a watch at auction [Applause]

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 156,900

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, Paul Newman, Rolex, wristwatch, New York City auction

Id: b2qVPLbZrko

Length: 4min 13sec (253 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2017