Footballer Daniele De Rossi spotted wearing a Rolex

Daniele De Rossi's retirement from professional football was always going to be a significant moment in Italian sporting history. The former AS Roma captain and Azzurri World Cup winner closed a defining chapter with characteristic understatement — but the watch on his wrist spoke volumes. Spotted at the occasion of his official farewell, De Rossi wore a stainless steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6239, one of the most historically important wristwatches ever produced.

The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6239 was manufactured from 1963 to 1969 and holds the distinction of being the very first reference to bear the Daytona name on its dial. Powered by the manually wound Valjoux 72 ebauche — a robust, high-beat movement offering a 48-hour power reserve — the 6239 featured a 37mm stainless steel case, screw-down pushers, and a tachymeter bezel engraved directly onto the metal. What elevates certain examples to legendary status is the so-called 'Paul Newman' dial: an exotic variant with art-deco-style sub-registers, square indices, and a distinctive two-tone layout that Rolex itself never officially named. The actor Paul Newman wore his own example so publicly and consistently that the collector world eventually adopted the nickname permanently.

From a collector's perspective, the Ref. 6239 Paul Newman in stainless steel represents the apex of vintage Rolex desirability. Supply is genuinely scarce — only a fraction of original 6239 production carried the exotic dial — and condition-sensitive pricing means that documented, well-preserved examples routinely exceed €200,000 on the secondary market. Newman's own Ref. 6239 sold at Phillips in 2017 for $17.75 million, setting a world record for any wristwatch at auction and permanently anchoring the reference in horological legend.

De Rossi, 41, spent nearly his entire professional career at AS Roma, making over 600 appearances for the club before stints at Boca Juniors and a brief managerial return to the Giallorossi. Known for his intensity and loyalty, he is one of the few modern footballers with genuine vintage watch credibility — the Ref. 6239 is not a watch you stumble into; it requires knowledge, patience, and serious commitment.

At current grey-market valuations, a stainless steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6239 with a Paul Newman dial in collector-grade condition trades at approximately $215,000–$230,000, with exceptional examples pushing well beyond that threshold. There is no official Rolex retail price for this vintage reference. For De Rossi, the choice feels entirely deliberate — a watch as storied and uncompromising as the man wearing it.