Featuring a tri-colored dial with black, white and red accents, the vibrant dials were made by Singer, a Rolex dial maker at the time. Enhancing its attraction, the subsidiary dials featured a clean art deco style typeface and graphics, differing from its original dials manufactured by Rolex. Initially a failure due to its poor reception, the “Singer-made” Paul Newman dials were offered in small quantities, making them exceedingly rare and popular today.
The present example from circa 1969 fitted with a white “Paul Newman” dial is offered in attractive overall condition. Exceedingly rare, it is estimated that only between 1,000 - 1,500 examples were fitted with an exotic “Paul Newman” dial among 14,000 examples of the ref. 6239 produced from 1963 – 1972. Furthermore, differing from earlier examples of the reference, examples from 1967 – 1969 featured the updated cal. 722-1, such as the present wristwatch.
Founded in 1905 England by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis as Wilsdorf & Davis, it soon became known as the Rolex Watch Company in 1915, moving its headquarters to Geneva in 1919. Like no other company, the success of the wristwatch can be attributed to many of Rolex's innovations that made them one of the most respected and well-known of all luxury brands. These innovations include their famous "Oyster" case — the world's first water resistant and dustproof watch case, invented in 1926 — and their "Perpetual" — the first reliable self-winding movement for wristwatches launched in 1933. They would form the foundation for Rolex's Datejust and Day-Date, respectively introduced in 1945 and 1956, but also importantly for their sports watches, such as the Explorer, Submariner and GMT-Master launched in the mid-1950s.
One of its most famous models is the Cosmograph Daytona. Launched in 1963, these chronographs are without any doubt amongst the most iconic and coveted of all collectible wristwatches. Other key collectible models include their most complicated vintage watches, including references 8171 and 6062 with triple calendar and moon phase, "Jean Claude Killy" triple date chronograph models and the Submariner, including early "big-crown" models and military-issued variants.
