A touching story and I hope the young man appreciates your generous gift and doesn't just toss it in a drawer in his bedroom. I saw no need to apologize... you were a victim of a practical joke and the boys got the reaction from you that they wanted. Did you feel guilty about the "marine stare"? Is that why you gifted the watch? Or maybe it was the gin and tonic?
Sorry about the loss of your wedding band.
Your story reminded me of another involving an iconic watch and a movie star.
"On 26 October 2017, the most sought-after wristwatch in the world will go on sale for the first time since it was originally bought by actress Joanne Woodward in 1972. Engraved on the caseback with the simple message “Drive Carefully Me”, the watch was a gift for her husband, Paul Newman. Here we speak to their daughter Nell and the current owner of Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona ref. 6239, James Cox.
When James Cox headed off for college to study human ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, in the mid-1980s, he had no idea that he was about to become a part of the greatest wristwatch story of all time. Enchanted by a beautiful blonde girl who drove her Datsun car like a bat out of hell and threw what-are-you-looking-at stares at anyone who dared to notice, Cox made it his mission to get to know her. The girl was Nell Potts, a pseudonym to allow her the anonymity she craved. After a hot pursuit, she and Cox began dating and only at this stage did the smitten Cox discover that Nell was the daughter of Hollywood legend Paul Newman.
During their decade together, while Nell was indulging a life-long passion for the reintroduction of peregrine falcons in Vermont, Cox offered to restore a treehouse on the Newman family property in Connecticut. Originally built in the 1960s, the maple tree that supported the treehouse had continued growing and squashed the structure, which took almost five weeks to rebuild.
“Paul’s wife Joanne [Woodward] was away doing a play and Paul would come by and check on my progress in the evenings,” remembers Cox. “I knew Nell pretty well by that time, and the family is so grounded that it became comfortable quite quickly. The treehouse was a common interest and we would have dinner and talk. There were always people popping by, but I was young and didn’t recognize any of them. My one regret is that I maybe over-compensated and gave him more privacy than he actually wanted, but I was just a kid and he was my girlfriend’s dad so I wanted to find that balance between familiarity and respect.”
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The treehouse Cox helped to rebuild (Image courtesy of James Cox)
The Gift of Cool
Whatever happened that summer, there is no doubt that Newman and Cox bonded. Although he was known for his generosity to others and a lack of attachment to material objects, it was still a pretty big gesture when, noticing that Cox never wore a watch and being a stickler for punctuality, Newman decided to remove any excuse Cox may have for tardiness by giving him his Rolex ref. 6239 – the original “Paul Newman” Daytona. Nell laughs as she remembers her father’s fixation on promptness. “He was obsessed with punctuality. He turned it into a game with people. He would look at the watches others were wearing and bet them his was more accurate. I remember him saying: ‘What time you got? I bet you a nickel my watch keeps better time than yours.’ He had the Speaking Clock on speed-dial and his Rolex Daytona would always win.”
“Joanne had recently bought Paul a new watch with a new inscription on the back, so I guess you could say he was updating,” Cox continues. “Why he chose me to give the old Rolex, we’ll never know. People question why he would give such an intimate object away. But that was him. He didn’t hoard. He was more interested in helping people. I do tend to run late and maybe this irked him – he was never late despite the fact that he could have easily got away with it – it was just how he rolled.”
And the Rolex? “To him it was a tool – a watch that kept great time,” says Nell. “At the track, he would hand it to me to time the top three guys he was racing against. In pictures of him racing in the 1970s and 1980s, his sleeve is rolled up and the watch is visible but he is not posing. He genuinely used it for timing, while driving. My mom picked the watch out herself. She loved simple, practical things – she wore a Timex herself – and it was the right choice of watch for Pop. He wasn’t a fancy guy. He was stylish, but he wasn’t into fashion.
“There’s a great story from the 1970s when denim wasn’t allowed in smart restaurants. This really aggravated Pop and so he had a three-piece suit made from old blue jeans to wear out for dinner. He would walk in and challenge the
maître d’ to say something. He was authentic and that’s why he was cool.”
Cox adds: “That’s why the watch is now a symbol of cool. It became cool because he was cool. People were touched by him – and, above all, Joanne picked a great watch!”
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Two icons of modern culture: Paul Newman and the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 6239 that took his name (Image: Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images)
Dawning Significance
For the following decade, the ref. 6239 became everyday wear for Cox, who was oblivious to the fascination the watch world had for the piece and its current whereabouts. “I had no idea of its importance,” he says. “When Paul gave it to me in the 1980s, it was a beautiful personal gift. I knew Rolex was a great brand and it was a nice thing to own but that was it. In the 1990s, I found out that the watch was a cult. I was at an event and a Japanese man kept pointing at my wrist and saying ‘Paul Newman’. I nodded and wondered how he could possibly know [Paul] gave me the watch.
“When I got home I did some research – and once I saw that the watch had its own Wikipedia page – I stopped wearing it and put it in a safety deposit box. It was interesting to know, but it made owning it a burden and that brings us up to the present day. Eventually I thought that as Paul had done something beautiful in giving the watch to me, it was time for me to do likewise. If he was alive today he would not want his watch to sit in a safe, he would say: ‘Let’s bring it out in the world.’”
Cox approached Nell about selling the watch and she gave her full blessing, but with little knowledge of the crazy world of horology, he was unsure of where to go or what the true value was. “All I knew was that we had to retell the stories of Pop and revisit his values,” says Nell. “I think he would have wanted this, to let the rest of the world enjoy the watch and to see the proceeds going to charity.”
“It was passed on in a gesture of generosity and it’s time for it to move again,” adds Cox. “Today the world is in chaos, it needs a hero that represents humility, generosity and kindness and that is Paul. There’s a generation that doesn’t know who he was. We wanted to bring him back.
And it is the legacy from Newman plus the needs of the Foundation that have encouraged the sale of the ref. 6239 – proceeds from which will go to the Nell Newman Foundation. “Paul always said, ‘If people knew how good it felt to give their money away, they wouldn’t wait until they were dead,” says Cox. “There is so much to do in life and doing it is so rewarding. Paul is a pillar of that for me and he has passed on the message of: ‘Life is short, so let’s rock and roll.’
And the rest of the story.... the watch sold in auction for an astounding $17,800,000.00 USD
Source: To Read Entire Article from Revolution....
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