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Few watch models stir diehard collectors quite like the Rolex Daytona with an exotic “Paul Newman” dial. The late actor made this variation of the watch so famous—with its Art Deco numerals and contrasting track around the edge of the dial—that his personal specimen sold for a then record-setting $17.8 million in 2017. Meanwhile, no design flourish gives a watch more prestige than a Tiffany stamp on the dial, which signifies that the piece was originally sold by the legendary New York-based jeweler. And for collectors who really don’t have to worry about the price tag, landing a watch from your birth year is an irresistible cherry on top. Jay-Z’s latest watch is a Rolex Daytona 6263 that combines all these elements in an unparalleled holy grail.
Until this past weekend, when Jay-Z wore it to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour stop at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, this watch spent years hiding out in a safe. The dealer Adam Golden, founder of Menta Watches, has known about this exact piece for years. The Daytona came from a private collection that the collector has slowly been selling off. Golden sold the mythical “Lemon” Daytona 6265, an 18-carat yellow-gold version of the watch with a citrus-yellow dial, from the same collector for $3.6 million.
“I’ve known about this watch for three or four years now and [was] always promised it [by the seller],” Golden explained via DM. “The time finally came. I was going to offer it to a good client and it randomly popped in my head to text Alex [Todd, Jay’s go-to jeweler], as Jay is a [Tiffany] ambassador.”
When a watch this special comes along, there is little time to hesitate—and Todd jumped at the opportunity. “When it comes to vintage Rolex I trust very few people honestly,” Todd told me. “Whenever somebody sends me a vintage Rolex, I send a picture to Adam for his advice. Recently, I sent him an expensive Daytona to get his advice, so he might have had an idea that I had my eyes on one for an important client. He sent me this rare gem, and it being a ‘69 Tiffany Newman, it only made sense who it would end up going to.” Golden’s text bounced from Todd over to that “important client” of his: “Sent it over to Hov and that’s all she wrote.”
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