The watch, presented to Vic Elford after the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona, is expected to fetch up to $200,000 at a record-setting New York auction.
Jerry Seinfeld; Vic Eford displays the Rolex watch he was presented with at Daytona International Speedway in 1968. Photo: Getty Images
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The most valuable watch auction in U.S. history is coming to New York this December. The New York Watch Auction: XV is the highest-value watch auction ever held in the U.S. by any auction house. One of its standout lots—a vintage Rolex Daytona—comes from Jerry Seinfeld.
Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches, Americas at Phillips, told Inc. that a vintage Patek Philippe reference 2499 in pink gold is leading the sale, but one of its most storied lots is the Rolex Daytona reference 6239, which was presented to British driver Vic Elford after he won the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona.
This is the first known Daytona ever awarded to the race winner, according to a release from Phillips. The watch is estimated at $100,000 to $200,000.
The first known Rolex Daytona awarded to a race winner
Rolex began giving watches to Daytona race winners in the 1960s. In 1968, it gave Elford the watch—marking the first documented year of the exchange. Elford and his teammates had just drove a Porsche 907 longtail to victory, marking Porsche’s first win in a 24-hour endurance race.
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The watch has had only three owners; Elford, who died in 2022, kept it until 2010 when he sold it to a European collector who owned the winning Porsche 907 and wanted to reunite the car with its watch. Seinfeld later bought the car from that collector.
Boutros told Inc. that Seinfeld initially only wanted the car, but his friend Spike Feresten, a former Seinfeld writer, convinced him to buy the watch too. Feresten later recommended Phillips for the sale.
Why the watch’s three-owner history matters
In the world of collectors, a documented provenance trail really matters to buyers. Not only does it serve as a historical record, but can also illuminate the lot’s quality.