Always loved Nicklaus's Gold Day Date. Its rarely been off his wrist since he got it in 1967. Amazed it only fetched $1.2m to be honest. It's been in almost all victory photos that he has had over the years including many of those 18 majors he has. The interview Hodinkee did a couple of years back is well worth a look. https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/jack-nicklaus-rolex-day-date-sells-phillips-new-york
...which, is totally bonkers, and (to me at least) in no way understandable, when comparing the results of the sale of John Glenn's Le Coultre 'lucky #13' (my pick) for $62500, and his navitimer for $156250. http://www.onthedash.com/watching-john-glenn/ The only explanation I have is there are more people who care for 'movie stars' (thinking of Brando's GMT sans bezel that also sold for $1.X million if bad memory serves) and 'sports stars' then pioneers of space travel and actual 'fusion stars'. All IMH2cO
The Daytona is essentially the most collectible watch in the market. The most collectible Daytona was named after Paul Newman. This was Paul Newman’s own watch. Paul Newman is a famous (and eminently charitable) movie star from a golden age of Hollywood. It was a perfect storm of collectability, brand, model, celebrity, rarity, etc. Clearly a crazy number but probably the most likely candidate to bring that sort of value for all of those factors.
the guy Tiger Woods has been chasing and probably will not catch. I've heard him referred to as "the Michael Jordan of golf". for those of us that grew up watching him, he's "the man"