Inside the Rolex booth at Dubai Watch Week, which concluded Monday, one can walk by a glass display case of vintage Daytonas telling the story of the famous Rolex chronograph through the years. Hung on the wall is a framed black-and-white picture of Paul Newman in a racing suit looking in the distance, his right hand adjusting an ear piece, his left sleeve revealing a panda Daytona 6239.
Near the Daytona exhibition, there's a small theater where a 1-minute-40-second video called the “Triumph of Endurance” is played on a big screen. In its opening scene, we are sitting in the passenger seat next to Paul Newman as he is driving, relaxed, one hand comfortably resting on the wheel, the car window rolled down and the wind lightly blowing the sleeve of his blue shirt. We are sitting so close to him it's unclear if the character has been CGI'ed, but we can't immediately recall a movie with this kind of point of view.
The man who has done more for the brand than any other Testimonee was never paid to wear a Rolex, ironically. In the early 1980s, Rolex sponsored the publication of a book in French on the life of the actor, titled “Paul Newman: Les images d'une vie.” On the backcover, there's the picture of the blue-eyed legend with his left fist nestled under his chin, the exotic dial of his 6239 in full view. Movie fans and collectors alike notice: the story of the Paul Newman Daytona — and the so-called Paul Newman dial — would genesis at that moment.
For decades, the Paul Newman effect has never ceased to be felt in the watch world, reaching a zenith in 2017, when the personal Rolex of the late actor was sold at an auction in New York for $17.8 million. That the Newman effect still reverberates across the world today begs the question: Can someone ever replace him?
To be clear, Rolex doesn't need brand ambassadors today; it sells every watch it makes. Still, it's interesting to think that the up-and-coming generation of Rolex clients will only have known Newman as the voice of Doc Hudson in Pixar’s animated movie “Cars” (2006). The man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history could have a diminishing appeal, the way Björn Borg or Sir Jackie Stewart are to some today. Yet, there's no one on the horizon to take his place.
“How exactly do we measure greatness?” was the first line of a Rolex video about Roger Federer released on Sept. 15, 2022, the same day the tennis icon announced his retirement. Rolex in the video tells us cold, hard statistics are not enough. “Numbers will never fully encompass the extend of his legend […]. For his is a greatness that can never be measured.”
Photo credit: Adrian Dennis / AFP
Federer is often wearing a Rolex, except when he is actually plying his trade. The Swiss never competed with a Rolex on his wrist, the way Newman wore one while racing cars or performing on a movie set. Few people play tennis, but everyone watches movies. And did I mention Newman was unpaid by the brand?
Two of my favorite profiles I've written are those of men who did extreme things while wearing their personal Rolex: Tyrone Woods, a decorated Navy SEAL who fought for his country and saved countless lives during his 20-year service while wearing a Sea-Dweller. He died while fighting on a mission he had volunteered for.
Eddie Braun, a Hollywood stuntman who doubled for Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, Lee Majors, Chuck Norris, to name a few — all while wearing a Rolex Explorer during dangerous stunts. You know you're tough when Chuck Norris calls you to be his stunt double. Eddie tells me the Rolex Explorer is still his daily today.
Photo courtesy: Disney
But these men will never have the celebrity status required to lift themselves up to Newman's level. A stuntman, by definition, is the face you never see. A Navy SEAL is even more secretive.
Back at Dubai Watch Week, a forum discussion about successful collaborations had Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias explain how to detect a rising star. To know the next talent, the panel concluded, find out whom the current talent is closely following. Bennahmias said Jay-Z introduced him to LeBron James when the basketball player was just 18. Jay-Z advised him to “sign that kid.” (Audemars Piguet would eventually sign James but not until many years later.)
In the only movie for which Paul Newman won an Oscar, he worked side-by-side with Tom Cruise. In “The Color of Money” (1986) Cruise played pool hustler Vincent Lauria, who Eddie "Fast Eddie" Felson (Newman) takes under his wing. Newman took Cruise under his wing in real life, too, and Newman's love for the racetrack rubbed off on the young Tom Cruise.
Photo credit: Jake’s Rolex World
The “Top Gun” star is today the biggest paid actor in Hollywood. He is irrefutably one of the greatest action movie stars of all time — if not the greatest. His dedication and innovation within the action film space is unmatched. Cruise is known for executing dangerous stunts. Hell, he can grab onto the side of an airplane as it takes off.
Cruise's love for Rolex is well documented, too. From white-gold Daytona at the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix this year to a Pepsi GMT-Master II, a black-dial Sky-Dweller, and more recently, the new Rolex Yacht-Master 42 in RLX titanium while promoting the latest Mission Impossible movie in Korea. Cruise, like Newman, is not paid by Rolex.
But it was in 1988 that Cruise was first seen sporting a Rolex on screen, when he played an Army veteran-turned-bartender with dreams of becoming a millionaire. He is wearing a tropical pink shirt in Jamaica in the movie “Cocktail” when we first spot him with a white-dial Rolex Air-King on the wrist.
If Cruise had stuck with the Air-King reference for an entire career, off and on the movie set, he could have done for the Air-King what Newman did for the Daytona; neither were the most popular Rolex choices of their time. And what would a Tom Cruise exotic dial look like?
The actor famous for wearing an aviator jacket while riding a motorcycle actually flies a P-51 Mustang on his time off. Few will disagree he is the embodiment of the Air-King. He also performed the flying scenes in “American Made” (2017), the story of a TWA pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA. Cruise is to flying what Newman was to car races, on and off screen.
Photo courtesy: Paramount
But it’s clear we will never see a framed picture of Cruise at a Rolex exhibition, and so the opportunity is missed. The question remains whether there’ll ever be someone capable of stepping into Newman’s shoes to carry the torch of Rolex ambassadorship to his level.
Who is the next talent that can even reach Cruise’s magnitude and speak to the next wave of Rolex collectors? No one knows. But, to echo Audemars Piguet CEO’s advice at Dubai Watch Week, it doesn’t hurt to look at the person the current biggest talent is closely following.
