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Forbes Life OUT OF THE ASHES

Long Live McQueen

For years, Steve McQueen’s Rolex Submariner was presumed lost. Then it was
destroyed in a fire—until it wasn’t. Now the King of Cool’s timepiece has reemerged
and will go up for auction in October. The secret history of a grail watch.

BY MICHAEL SOLOMON

or more than half a century, Steve McQueen and Paul them on display.”
Newman have been cosmic twins of masculinity. Box- he watch Eisenberg sought, however, wasn’t the one for
oice rivals throughout the sixties and seventies—they which McQueen is best known—a Heuer Monaco, which was
Fwould have starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance actually just a prop for his 1971 racing movie, Le Mans. But
Kid but couldn’t agree on who would receive top billing— the McQueen mystique has made that timepiece a classic and
the actors were also revered for their ofscreen passions: rac- collectible for decades. In 2012 a Monaco he wore in the ilm
ing cars, riding motorcycles and collecting watch- sold at auction for nearly $800,000. Ofscreen, Mc-
es. Years a er their deaths—McQueen died at 50 in Queen was frequently photographed wearing his ac-
1980, while Newman passed away in 2008 at 83—the tual watch: a ref. 5513 Rolex Submariner, circa 1964.
two men still regularly compete over the ever-escalat- Now Phillips will bring that watch to auction on
ing prices of their memorabilia. October 25 in New York.
Last October, Paul Newman’s 1968 Rolex Dayto- Like the Newman watch, McQueen’s Subma-
na—with a white-and-red “exotic” dial that came riner has a fascinating history, one that com-
to be known as the Paul Newman Daytona sim- bines elements from two of his most famous
ply because he wore it—sold at Phillips auction movies, he Great Escape and he Towering
house in New York for an astonishing $17.8 Inferno, and even involves a stuntman. He
million. he price was not only a record for a bought the watch in the mid-1960s, when
Rolex at auction but also the highest amount it would have cost around $250, and also
ever paid for a wristwatch at auction. owned another model, a ref. 5512 Submari-
More than a year before the gavel came down ner from 1967 that brought $234,000 at an An-
on Paul Newman’s Paul Newman, Michael Eisen- tiquorum auction in 2009.
berg, a Beverly Hills real estate broker and developer Some time in the late 1970s, McQueen gave the
who is also a prominent memorabilia collector, was older Submariner to his favorite stunt double, Loren
privately negotiating with the consignor of the Day- Janes. he pair had been working together since
tona, a deal that would have kept it from ever going 1958, when McQueen was making the TV series
on the block. “I really wanted to buy it,” the 53-year- Wanted: Dead or Alive. Over the next two decades,
old Eisenberg recalls. “I had the money, but obviously it wasn’t in 19 movies—including Bullitt, he Getaway and he hom-
anywhere near the money the watch sold for.” as Crown A air—Janes performed some of McQueen’s most
He also soon began a quest for another so-called grail memorable stunts. hat iconic ten-minute car chase in Bullitt,
watch—one owned by McQueen. “he idea was to join the two where McQueen careens through San Francisco in a 1968 Mus-
watches—then I’d have Butch and Sundance,” says Eisenberg, tang? It was actually Janes behind the wheel.
who wears a Rolex 1675 GMT Master with a root beer dial To show his gratitude for Janes’ work and friendship, Mc-
and bezel. “And I would never sell them. I’d tour them and put Queen also had the case back engraved—LOREN, THE BEST

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