I mentioned on here in February of last year that my friend has a vintage Rolex Daytona and wanted help verifying it was what I suspected. Several of you directed me to the Vintage Rolex Forum. They told me (via a deluge of emails requesting me to sell it) that it was indeed a Paul Newman Exotic. Frank was pleased to learn it was not worth $20k that he had been told by his jeweler (now his former jeweler) but something in the $100k range.

He takes it to Mayors (Atlanta Rolex AD) for an insurance estimate. They tell him something like $85k. I told him they don't know, they aren't in the vintage space but email offers do not meet underwriting needs, so it was insured for that value.

Frank sends the watch to Rolex to have the central seconds hand re-installed. I advised against sending it to them for fear of them lowering its value by polishing, reluming, etc. Thankfully, they did no damage. The watch was running fine.

Then 3-4 weeks ago, Frank calls me (Frank is not a watch guy btw, and he's a good bit older than me - he was given the watch by his parents in 1970 for his college graduation gift). He said the watch is suddenly running 2+ hours fast, every day. He wants to know how to insure it for shipping back to Rolex (it's got a 2-year service warranty). I told him about JWLS (thanks Craig - ChronoDeco) but they were unresponsive. I also told him to try to get it looked at locally, that it was probably just magetized. So he took it back to Mayors who do not have a demagnetizer. I called Crown & Caliber and they said they'd look at it.

Well, the good folks at C&C demagnetized it, replaced a faulty gasket and a bent spring bar and wouldn't take a penny from him. That's service. Now he's going to have them list it for sale! I am not sure what the price point will be, but I am certain Frank will get more than the $20k his jeweler told him.

I am very excited for him and for myself to have helped him get this far. Also, I am excited for the Rolex collectors who don't often get the chance to buy one of these.

FWIW, it's too small for my taste, I far prefer the size of the Autavia.