For more than four decades, it sat quietly in a family drawer. Two sisters inherited the watch from their father, assumed it was simply part of the estate, and almost left it there. One email to Sotheby’s Head of Watches EMEA, Mikael Wallhagen, changed everything.
What emerged was one of the rarest Rolex Daytonas ever to appear at auction: a yellow gold reference 6239 fitted with the coveted Paul Newman dial, believed to be one of fewer than ten known. As bidding intensified in Geneva, the watch surpassed its estimate, sold for CHF 900,000, and set a new world record for the reference. It's a reminder that remarkable objects don't always announce themselves. Sometimes they've been waiting in a drawer all along.
