Watch Paparazzi

Singer Adam Levine spotted wearing Rolex

Adam Levine has long operated in a different league from the typical celebrity watch-wearer. While most musicians default to modern haute horlogerie for red-carpet visibility, Levine consistently gravitates toward vintage steel sports watches — pieces with genuine collector pedigree. This NBC sighting, almost certainly captured during a taping of The Voice given the signature red coaching chairs in the background, catches him casually wearing one of the most mythologized dials in horology: the Rolex Daytona Paul Newman.

The watch in frame is a Ref. 6239, Rolex's first manually-wound Cosmograph Daytona, produced between 1963 and 1969. The reference is identifiable by its screw-down pushers — or more precisely, the lack of them: the 6239 uses pump-style pushers, distinguishing it from the later 6241 and 6265 references. The dial exhibits the hallmark 'exotic' layout: bold rectangular hash markers on the sub-dial chapter rings, contrasting lozenge-shaped indices, and the distinctive open six and nine numeral fonts that define the Paul Newman aesthetic. The movement inside is the manual-wind Valjoux 72, a robust and well-regarded ebauche that Rolex regulated in-house.

The Paul Newman designation carries enormous cultural and collector weight. The name traces to an auction and enthusiast lore surrounding Newman's own heavily patinated Ref. 6239, which sold at Phillips Geneva in 2017 for $17.75 million — still the world record for any wristwatch at auction. That single sale crystallized what serious collectors already knew: the exotic dial Daytona is irreplaceable. White dial with black sub-registers, as seen here, commands a premium over the inverse configuration.

Levine's affinity for vintage Rolex is well-documented across numerous sightings — he has been spotted wearing Submariners, GMT-Masters, and early Daytonas. His choices consistently reflect a collector's eye rather than a stylist's brief: correct patina, period-appropriate bracelets, no overcorrection toward pristine examples. It reads as genuine enthusiasm.

On the current market, a Ref. 6239 Paul Newman in this white-dial, black sub-register configuration — assuming honest originality and good dial condition — trades in the $150,000–$250,000 range through reputable auction houses and specialist dealers, with exceptional examples pushing well beyond that threshold. Originality of the dial is everything; any restoration collapses value precipitously. Levine's example, from what is visible, presents cleanly.