Entrepreneur Alberto Galassi spotted wearing a Rolex

Alberto Galassi, the chief executive who has steered the Ferretti Group into one of the world's most recognisable luxury marine conglomerates, recently surfaced wearing what any seasoned collector would immediately clock as one of the grail pieces in vintage horology: a stainless steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 6264 bearing a black 'Paul Newman' panda dial — the specific configuration Italian collectors call the 'moschettiere.'

The ref. 6264 sits at the tail end of the manually wound Daytona lineage, produced roughly between 1969 and 1972. It was the last reference to house the Valjoux 727 — a hand-wound column-wheel chronograph movement with a 17-jewel ebauche — before Rolex transitioned to the ref. 6265 with the Valjoux 722. The black panda configuration places the two subsidiary registers in white against a matte black dial, with the distinctive exotic 'Paul Newman' typography featuring square-tipped indexes, Art Deco-style outer chapter ring and a characteristic pump-pusher case measuring 37 mm in diameter. The 'moschettiere' nickname, used within Italian collector circles, refers to the subtle printed details and specific dial variation that distinguish it from other black-dial Paul Newman executions.

Among Daytona collectors, the ref. 6264 with an exotic dial occupies a singular position. These dials were originally considered unsellable — retailers reportedly struggled to move them — and many were swapped out for standard dials, making surviving examples with intact Paul Newman faces genuinely scarce. Auction records bear this out consistently, with examples crossing seven figures at the major houses when provenance and condition align.

For Galassi, the choice reads as entirely coherent. A man who oversees the construction of objects defined by precision engineering, timeless Italian design and extreme material value — Riva runabouts, CRN superyachts — wearing a watch that embodies exactly those qualities is no coincidence. It signals literacy, not decoration.

On the grey market, a ref. 6264 in stainless steel with a genuine black Paul Newman panda dial commands serious attention. Depending on condition, provenance, and whether the dial, hands and case remain untouched, values range from the high six figures into seven, with trophy examples having cleared $1 million at auction. Retail pricing is, of course, not applicable for a watch of this vintage — this is strictly a collector-to-collector or auction-house transaction.