Also this week our friend, reader and recognized Italian Rolex expert,

especially Vintage, met with us for a pleasant chat about the iconic Rolex Daytona Paul Newman.

Hi Stefano, why the Rolex Daytona Newman?

Because it is the status symbol par excellence;

with this article I have tried to answer the main questions of enthusiasts

who approach a Daytona Newman.

The Newman dial has always been the version with the sportiest and racing-related look. From Rolex, it was born in conjunction with the collaboration of Rolex as official timekeeper at the circuits of Daytona in Florida and Le Mans in France.

Mounted after about 1964, it was baptized exotic and tropical and then found its definitive nickname thanks to the Italian collectors, who noticed it on the wrist of the well-known actor in an advertisement for our market for the film “Indianapolis piste infernale”.

What identifies him at first sight?

This dial is characterized by the three-dimensionality generated by the difference in height between the central body of the dial, the counters and the perimeter track of the chronograph seconds, accentuated not only by the “physical” difference in level, but also by the contrasting colors and the reduction compared to the standard hour markers, truly compressed to the minimum terms. I like to think that the designer was inspired by a dashboard of a sports car with recessed indicators.

Where was it mounted?

It was mounted a bit on all the manual winding references starting from 6239 and 6240 and then on 6241, 6262/64, 6263.65, with the exception of the 6269/6270 gold models. There are two color matching versions, commonly referred to as two and three colors. As two colors we will identify the variant with a creamy white background, black counters and a black chronograph seconds track. Three colors with both light and black background counters and seconds track with contrasting color and red chronograph scale. The Daytona lettering positioned above the chrono hour counter at 6 o’clock is always red.

Has it always been a success?

These dials produced by the singer dial factory have been received very coldly by the market. In those days, massive, manually wound tonneau watches were not at the peak of desires. The public was looking for the automatic watch, elegant and thin, so they were often replaced with the more sober and elegant standard. When the market rediscovered Rolex in the mid-1980s, this dial was immediately sought after and, above all overseas, reproduced. The market was flooded with these quadrants that I will call after-market, but which can more simply be said to be fake. At that time there was no study that we have now developed on graphics, types, manufacturers, etc. therefore public knowledge of how to distinguish an original did not exist.

Over the next decade,

thousands of second-hand watches with good,

after-market dials were marketed, confusing the enthusiast and dangerously carrying the Paul Newman in watches too risky to buy.

With the advent of the internet, direct confrontation between fans took hold and therefore information and discussion also began to spread. I remember in 2004 various famous enthusiasts defined the Newman as a dial where nothing is understood. Too dangerous, obviously where there is no information there are always those who take advantage of it. I believe I was one of the first in those years to disassemble and list the original characteristics of this dial, which I guarantee is simpler than many others. I believe that all of these after-market dials have also helped to add to the appeal of this watch.

When something is falsified it is a symptomatology of success, to which we add the danger of not being sure of originality, they have created a mix of charm of the beautiful and the impossible, a star name then has it, the link with pure motor racing. , and the dish of success is served.replica rolex

How can we be sure of originality?

You can’t … I’m kidding! Obviously, experience is always the best advisor, for any model it can hardly be substituted for any text. As previously said, today the Newman quadrant has been studied and discussed in various locations, texts, magazines, forums… Analyzed and explained in all languages. Obviously you must have had it in your hands, the glance, the roughness of the paints of the time, some symptomatic imperfections of originality only the expert eye recognizes. As with all watches, I always recommend purchasing with caution, whether it is done with a private individual or with a dealer.

Personally, I deliver these watches with a personal expertise with the dial photographed in the best possible way, obviously disassembled, also because the back is often very important. The nuances present, the punch always placed in different places, the finishing, the bezels of the indexes, are a matter of singular identification, almost like a fingerprint.

As I have already told you several times,

always protect yourself with a sales declaration or tax document. This is to protect the buyer and, you never know, the seller.watch

Tell us a little about what we have to look at in a Newman?

As I said before, it is a dial characterized by three-dimensionality, that is, there is a difference in height between the central body, the perimeter track and the counters, obviously in contrasting colors. If we imagine we can walk on it starting from the outer edge we will find a lower part where the chronometric scale is printed (every 5 minutes we find an index that indicates the hours, the smallest ever thought for a chrono). This is a cube made of shiny metal in the white versions and in shiny metal with the upper surface enameled in black.best fake watches

In conjunction with these indexes,

walking towards the center we find a dot of luminous substance (tritium) which often rests on one side on the index and on the opposite side on the step of the central part of the dial. This is in all but the one at 12 o’clock. At 6 o’clock there is the inscription t swiss t. This is a fundamental element to evaluate, there are unmistakable graphic features in the original dials, which vary between 2 and three colors.

Now, continuing our virtual walk,

we are on the central part of the dial, near the chronograph minute counter. Here we note that the difference in distance between the edge and the counters (second counter) is not equal. We are now close to a counter which is at a lower level, so we go down. The counter is made of concentric circles which, in the vast majority of cases, start immediately under the step, but exist, especially in the latest versions, quadrants with the edge of the counters inclined. The graphics present in each counter are very characteristic with numbers made with indistinguishable graphic peculiarities.

Let’s go back to the central part of the dial,

looking around we will notice that at 6 o’clock above the chrono hour counter there is the word Daytona. This is present in all models with pump buttons. At the top we find the Rolex logo crown, the Rolex inscription and the Cosmograph one, the name of a Rolex invention common to all the manual chronographs of that period which also evokes the space enterprises that in those years were the frontier that from then on to man. he was about to cross.

I believe that the career of the Newman dial lasted about 8 years, from about 1964/5 to 1972 always in an approximate way, often and upon request they were also mounted afterwards.

Which Paul Newman model do you like best?

Personally I love the two colors, obviously I find its maximum sublimation in 6240. Characterized by a graphic of particular writing called a stick, with less pronounced graces, this reference was the first dedicated to a Rolex chronograph that fully embraces the philosophy of waterproofing. and robustness.

The changes concerned the pushers with screw closure, larger crown and for the first time, tachymeter bezel in black enamel. Here there are two schools of thought, those who like the dial of the pump models, because it is defined as a prototype, and those who like the dials with the Oyster personalization. I am for the second hypothesis, the novelty of this model was dictated by the Oyster case, why shouldn’t it be written on it?

However,

here we are talking as if the egg was born before the hen,

unfortunately Rolex in no way helps the collector in his passion so we have to reconstruct the story in pieces, comparing ourselves. Watches don’t always reach us “as mom made them” so it’s hard to establish a reason without the slightest doubt.