Actor Dany Boon spotted wearing a Rolex

Dany Boon, the northern French comedian and director behind France's all-time domestic box-office record holder 'Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis,' was photographed at a promotional book or DVD signing event with a vintage Rolex Cosmograph Daytona clearly visible on his wrist. The reference, identifiable from the companion detail shot, is the storied Ref. 6239 — the very first Daytona reference to carry the Cosmograph designation on the dial and the model most closely associated with the 'Paul Newman' exotic dial mythology.

The Ref. 6239 was produced from approximately 1963 to 1969, housing the manually-wound Valjoux 72 movement — a robust, column-wheel chronograph calibre delivering roughly 17,000 vph and a 40-hour power reserve. The case measures 37mm in stainless steel, fitted here with a black acrylic bezel insert engraved with the tachymeter scale. What makes this particular example exceptional is the dial: the so-called 'Paul Newman' configuration features square-tipped subdial indices, a distinct outer chapter ring with Art Deco serif numerals, and — critically — a red 'Daytona' signature, confirming this as among the most desirable dial variants within the reference.

The 'Paul Newman' designation itself became official collector shorthand following a 2017 Phillips auction in which Newman's personal Ref. 6239 — gifted by his wife Joanne Woodward — sold for $17.75 million, permanently anchoring the name in horological legend. Prior to that sale, the exotic dial was already commanding premiums; afterward, the market for any authentic Paul Newman Daytona entered a new stratosphere entirely.

For Boon to be wearing such a piece casually at a public signing speaks to a collector who acquired the watch long before the recent hysteria — or one with extremely confident taste. The Ref. 6239 with Paul Newman dial in steel, particularly in the red-signature variant, is not a watch one picks up on impulse. It requires knowledge, patience, and provenance verification.

On the current market, authenticated examples of the Ref. 6239 Paul Newman in honest condition trade between $150,000 and $400,000 at major auction houses, with exceptional or single-owner examples regularly exceeding those figures. There is no official retail price — this is a vintage reference — but its grey-market floor has risen sharply post-2017 and shows no structural signs of retreating.