Television presenter Ellen spotted wearing a Rolex

Ellen DeGeneres was photographed on the set of The Ellen DeGeneres Show wearing a stainless steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona carrying the legendary 'Paul Newman' exotic dial configuration — one of the most recognisable and valuable dial variants in all of vintage watchmaking. The sighting is notable both for the calibre of the piece and for the fact that DeGeneres wears it entirely without ceremony, paired with a casual plaid shirt, which is precisely how a watch this significant should be worn.

The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona reference 6239 was introduced in 1963 and represented Rolex's first serious push into the motorsport chronograph category. The 'Paul Newman' nickname refers to a sub-family of exotic dials — characterised by a recessed chapter ring, Art Deco-style square markers within the subsidiary registers, and a contrasting two-tone colour scheme — that the actor and racing driver Paul Newman famously wore. His personal example, a ref. 6239 gifted by his wife Joanne Woodward with the inscription 'DRIVE CAREFULLY ME', sold at Phillips in 2017 for $17.75 million, setting a world auction record for a wristwatch at that time. The movement powering these references is the manually-wound Valjoux 72-based calibre, a robust and well-regarded ebauche used across several generations of the reference.

From a collector standpoint, Paul Newman Daytonas occupy a tier of their own. Authenticity of the dial is everything — fakes and redials are rampant — and condition of the original lacquer, subdial printing, and lume plots determines value more acutely than almost any other factor. A clean, unpolished ref. 6239 with a confirmed original exotic dial routinely trades at six figures.

DeGeneres has demonstrated a genuine interest in quality timepieces over the years, and this sighting places her firmly within the serious vintage Rolex collector conversation rather than the celebrity-watches-as-accessory category. The piece reads as a personal choice rather than a styling decision.

On the current market, authentic Paul Newman Daytona references in honest condition command anywhere from $150,000 to well over $400,000 at major auction houses, depending on provenance, case condition, and dial grade. No official Rolex retail price exists for this vintage reference.