A constant beloved companion of Paul Newman for years, the late Hollywood star's Rolex has sold for $17.8 million, setting a world auction record for a wristwatch, Phillips said Friday. Given to him by his wife Joanne Woodward and lovingly inscribed while the couple filmed and co-starred in the 1969 movie "Winning," Newman was photographed wearing the iconic stainless steel watch on countless occasions.
Auction house Phillips said it was snapped up late Thursday in New York by an anonymous telephone buyer for $17.8 million after 12 minutes of frenzied bidding in a sale that attracted collectors from more than 40 countries. But if it's the most expensive wristwatch sold at auction, a handcrafted Patek Philippe pocket watch made for New York banker Henry Graves remains the most expensive overall, fetching more than $24 million at Sotheby's in 2015. Before giving her husband the watch, Woodward had the words "Drive Carefully Me" engraved on the back, in a nod to her anxiety over his fast driving three years after he was injured in a 1965 motorcycle accident.