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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rolex Daytona 6240 “Neanderthal”}}
{{#seo:
{{#seo:
|title=Rolex Neanderthal Daytona 6240 — Disputed Paul Newman Prototype — BezelBase
|title=Rolex Daytona 6240 “Neanderthal” — Disputed Dial Attribution | Rolexopedia
|description=The Neanderthal Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 6240 — the Phillips Daytona Ultimatum 2018 lot presented as the earliest Paul Newman prototype, sold for CHF 3,012,500. Perezcope's 2022 forensic dossier disputes the prototype framing using contemporaneous evidence from the April 1998 Orologi & Market magazine, arguing the dial is a late-1990s construction on a 6238 donor. Both positions remain on record.
|description=Phillips’ 1966 reference 6240 “Neanderthal” lot and the later Perezcope challenge to its dial chronology, case 1'439'122.
|keywords=Neanderthal Daytona, Neanderthal 6240, Rolex Neanderthal, Phillips Daytona Ultimatum, Perezcope Neanderthal, Paul Newman prototype, 6240 disputed, Orologi Market 1998
|keywords=Rolex 6240, Neanderthal Daytona, Paul Newman dial, Phillips Daytona Ultimatum, Perezcope, disputed Rolex
|image=Ref 6240 hero.webp
|image=Ref 6240 hero.webp
|type=article
|image_alt=Rolex Daytona reference 6240 known as the Neanderthal at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum
|type=Article
|og_type=article
|published_time=2026-09-27T00:00:00Z
|modified_time=2026-09-27T00:00:00Z
|robots=index,follow,max-image-preview:large
|titlemode=replace
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}}
<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] → [[Reference:6240|6240]] → '''Neanderthal'''</small>
<small>[[Reference:daytona|Daytona]] → [[Reference:6240|6240]] → '''Neanderthal'''</small>


= The Neanderthal (Daytona 6240) =
<div class="rp-lead">[[File:Ref 6240 hero.webp|thumb|center|640px|alt=Rolex Daytona reference 6240 known as the Neanderthal at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum|Rolex reference 6240, case 1'439'122, catalogued as “The Neanderthal” at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum in 2018.]]</div>


The Neanderthal is a Paul Newman-configuration [[Reference:6240|6240]] that Phillips sold in 2018 for CHF 3,012,500 including premium as the earliest known Paul Newman prototype. The nickname points to the dial's crude, proto-Paul-Newman look. Perezcope's 2022 dossier disputes the prototype story and argues for a later construction using a [[Reference:6238|6238]] donor dial. Both readings remain on the public record.
“Neanderthal” is the auction nickname for a single stainless-steel Rolex Cosmograph reference 6240, case 1'439'122. Phillips catalogued it in 2018 as a pre-Paul-Newman or earliest Paul Newman-style dial and sold it as lot 32. A later Perezcope dossier disputes the dial’s period and argues that a photograph in an April 1998 issue of ''Orologi & Market'' shows the same dial in another watch. The page records both positions; it does not resolve authenticity from catalogues alone.


[[File:Ref 6240 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=The Neanderthal 6240 at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum, Geneva, 12 May 2018|The Neanderthal 6240 at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum, Geneva, 12 May 2018]]
==Core facts==


== What the Neanderthal is ==
{| class="wikitable rp-facts"
 
|-
The Neanderthal, as it appeared at Phillips, had five identifying features that distinguished it from the documented Paul Newman Mk1-Mk4 progression:
! detail
 
! value
The Neanderthal has five practical tells.
 
* Mk1.75 typeface sitting between the known Mk1 and Mk2 Paul Newman forms.
* A 6240 host case with screw-down pushers.
* Block markers without the outline seen on Mk2 dials.
* Sub-dial geometry that Perezcope reads as closer to 6238 than 6239 production.
* A pre-1970 case serial.
 
== The Phillips sale (12 May 2018) ==
 
Phillips sold the Neanderthal as Lot 32 at Daytona Ultimatum and framed it as the earliest known Paul Newman prototype: a dial from before the documented Mk1 run, with typography and proportions Rolex later abandoned.
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
! Detail !! Value
| host reference
| 6240
|-
|-
| Reference || 6240, stainless steel
| case
| stainless steel, case 1'439'122
|-
|-
| Sale || Phillips Daytona Ultimatum, Geneva
| catalogue date
| circa 1966, Phillips
|-
|-
| Date || 12 May 2018
| movement
| manual caliber 72B, 17 jewels, as catalogued by Phillips
|-
|-
| Lot number || 32
| case size
| 37.5 mm, Phillips catalogue measurement
|-
|-
| Price (all-in) || CHF 3,012,500
| pushers and bezel
| screw-down pushers and acrylic tachymeter bezel, as described in the Phillips essay
|-
|-
| Position on Rolex auction list at sale date || 4th all-time
| bracelet
| Rolex Oyster reference 6635, end links stamped 57; clasp stamped 4.65
|-
|-
| Framing || Earliest known Paul Newman prototype
| dispute
| Phillips presents an early exotic-dial interpretation; Perezcope argues for a later dial construction on an early 6240 case
|}
|}


The sale placed the Neanderthal at the fourth position on the all-time Rolex auction list at the time, behind Newman's own 6239 (USD 17.52M at Phillips Winning Icons, 2017), the Unicorn 6265 (CHF 5.94M at the same Ultimatum sale), and the Bao Dai 6062 (USD 5.06M).
==What Phillips catalogued==
 
== The Perezcope dispute (November 2022) ==
 
Jose Pereztroika's November 2022 dossier — "Rolex Daytona 6240 Paul Newman Neanderthal: A myth goes extinct" — disputes the prototype framing. The dossier's central evidence falls into four categories:
 
=== ''Orologi & Market'' April 1998 ===
 
The April 1998 issue of ''Orologi & Market'' is the core of Perezcope's case. It appears to show the same dial in a construction context decades before Phillips presented it as a 1960s prototype. If that reading is right, the prototype story collapses.
 
=== Mk1.75 typeface analysis ===
 
Perezcope's typeface argument is simple: the printing does not look like a missing pre-Mk1 step, it looks like a later attempt to imagine one. Font weight, spacing, and stroke endings all read wrong against period Singer dials.
 
=== Sub-dial geometry from 6238 donor ===


Perezcope's geometry argument is that the dial reads more like a [[Reference:6238|6238]] donor than a true 6239-era Paul Newman dial. On that reading, the Neanderthal is a reworked 6238 dial, not a lost prototype.
Phillips’ 2018 lot 32 describes reference 6240, circa 1966, in stainless steel with manual caliber 72B, 17 jewels, a 37.5 mm case, Oyster bracelet 6635, end links 57, and clasp 4.65. The catalogue calls the dial “pre-Paul Newman” and says it has oversized registers, a white outer seconds track, and no Cosmograph, Oyster, or Daytona designation.


=== Singer stamp comparison ===
Those are catalogue statements about the offered watch. Phillips’ historical framing describes the reference 6240 as the first Cosmograph with screw-down pushers and places it before references 6263 and 6265. It does not provide a Rolex production document that proves the dial was made as a prototype in 1966.


The Singer dial-maker stamp on the Neanderthal's dial back, compared against authenticated Singer stamps across the Mk1–Mk4 progression, reads as mismatched to any production window. The stamp style does not fit the 1965–1969 6240 production range or any adjacent Singer production batch.
==Dial and typeface==


== Phillips's position and the Neanderthal's case ==
The dial is the disputed component. Phillips describes a black-and-white layout with oversized subsidiary registers and treats it as an early design stage before the serially produced Paul Newman dials. Collectors sometimes call the typography “Mk1.75”; that is a later descriptive label, not a Rolex designation.


Phillips did not claim an archive-backed Rolex prototype. The house argued from the dial itself: if it did not fit Mk1 production, it might belong to a pre-Mk1 phase. That is the exact reading Perezcope rejects.
Perezcope’s dossier reads the sub-dial geometry, printing, luminous details, and Singer stamp differently. It argues that the dial is a later construction associated with a 6238 donor and points to an April 1998 ''Orologi & Market'' photograph that it identifies as the same dial fitted in another watch. The magazine photograph is a primary period publication for that image, while Perezcope’s identification of the dial is an interpretation. The catalogue and dossier therefore support competing readings rather than a settled chronology.


The case itself — the 6240 stainless-steel case with screw-down pushers, acrylic crystal, and acrylic bezel insert — is not disputed. The 6240 production years (1965–1969) are period-correct for a pre-Mk1 Paul Newman framing, and the case authentication passes through the standard 6240 verification checkpoints. The dispute is dial-specific, not case-specific or movement-specific.
==Case, movement, and bracelet==


== Why the dispute matters ==
The 6240 case is not the disputed point in the published dossier. Phillips describes a stainless-steel case with screw-down pushers, an acrylic tachymeter bezel, and a twinlock 700-series crown. The lot lists manual caliber 72B with 17 jewels. These details identify the offered lot; they do not independently prove that the dial was delivered with the case.


The disagreement matters because the two readings imply completely different objects. If Phillips was right, the watch rewrites early Paul Newman chronology. If Perezcope was right, the market paid prototype money for a later construction.
The bracelet is catalogued as Rolex Oyster reference 6635 with end links stamped 57 and clasp 4.65. Those markings identify the bracelet components in the lot. They do not by themselves establish when the bracelet was fitted to the case or whether it was the original delivery bracelet.


Both positions stay on the record per BezelBase's never-pick-one-truth rule. The market's read on the Perezcope dossier will emerge at the next public sale of the Neanderthal, should it surface — the lot has not been re-catalogued publicly since the 2018 sale.
==Phillips sale==


== Relation to other disputed Daytona variants ==
Phillips sold lot 32 at Daytona Ultimatum in Geneva on 12 May 2018. The result was CHF 3,012,500 including the buyer’s premium. The sale result records the market’s response to the catalogue description at that time; it does not settle the later dial dispute.
 
The Neanderthal sits in a cluster of high-value disputed-authenticity Daytona variants, each with Perezcope as the second voice raising forensic questions against an auction-house lot:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
! Variant !! Phillips framing !! Perezcope counter !! Status
! sale date
! house and lot
! catalogue description
! result
|-
|-
| [[Reference:albino-daytona|Albino 6263]] || Factory Rolex variant (Hodinkee 2013 consensus) || 1990s Tom Bolt construction (Perezcope 2025) || 3 examples sold; dispute unresolved
| 12 May 2018
|-
| Phillips Geneva, Daytona Ultimatum, lot 32
| [[Reference:unicorn-daytona|Unicorn 6265]] || Only known white gold manual-wind Daytona with period-correct service replacements (Phillips 2018) || Frankenstein — components assembled post-2010 per 2010 Newoldschlock IG photos (Perezcope 2022) || Sold CHF 5.94M 2018; dispute unresolved
| Reference 6240, circa 1966, case 1'439'122, “pre-Paul Newman” dial
|-
| CHF 3,012,500
| Neanderthal 6240 || Earliest Paul Newman prototype (Phillips 2018) || Late-1990s construction on 6238 donor per Orologi & Market April 1998 (Perezcope 2022) || Sold CHF 3.01M 2018; dispute unresolved
|}
|}


The pattern is familiar. An auction house presents a watch with a rarity story, a forensic counter-dossier appears later, and no final authority closes the argument. The market then keeps trading the watch with that uncertainty attached.
==Limits of the evidence==
 
The reviewed sources establish the case and the descriptions attached to the 2018 sale. They do not establish a Rolex archive record for a 6240 prototype, prove the dial’s manufacture date, or prove that a later dial was installed on the case. A physical examination of the dial back, case, movement, and documented chain of custody would be needed to resolve those questions.


== Host reference ==
==Related references==


The Neanderthal is documented as a single example on a single [[Reference:6240|6240]] case. No other 6240 Paul Newman examples are documented in the published literature — per Rolex's standard production record, Paul Newman dials on 6240 are extremely rare, and the Neanderthal is the sole cited example at auction.
* [[Reference:6240|Daytona 6240]], host reference
* [[Reference:6239|Daytona 6239]], early Cosmograph reference
* [[Reference:paul-newman-daytona|Paul Newman Daytona]], dial-family context
* [[Reference:daytona|Daytona family index]]


== Where to go next ==
==Gallery==


- [[Reference:6240|Reference 6240]] — host reference
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
- [[Reference:paul-newman-daytona|Paul Newman Daytona]] — the disputed dial family context
File:Ref 6240 hero.webp|Phillips’ circa-1966 reference 6240, case 1'439'122
- [[Reference:albino-daytona|Albino Daytona]] — parallel disputed variant
</gallery>
- [[Reference:unicorn-daytona|Unicorn Daytona]] — parallel disputed variant
- [[Reference:daytona-glossary|Daytona glossary]] — quick definitions


== Source list ==
== Sources ==


* [https://www.phillips.com/article/42015509/made-for-racing-rolex-and-the-daytona Made for Racing: Rolex and the Daytona] — Phillips, 2018
* [https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/CH080318 Pucci Papaleo (curator); Aurel Bacs (auctioneer), "Phillips — Daytona Ultimatum (Geneva, 12 May 2018)", Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, 2018-05-12]
* Phillips Geneva, Daytona Ultimatum, Lot 32 catalogue essay, 12 May 2018
* [https://perezcope.com/2022/11/03/rolex-daytona-6240-paul-newman-neanderthal-a-myth-goes-extinct/ Jose Pereztroika, "Rolex Daytona 6240 Paul Newman "Neanderthal" — A Myth Goes Extinct", Perezcope, 2022-11-03]
* [https://perezcope.com/2022/11/03/rolex-daytona-6240-paul-newman-neanderthal-a-myth-goes-extinct/ Rolex Daytona 6240 Paul Newman Neanderthal: A myth goes extinct] — Jose Pereztroika, Perezcope, November 2022
* "Orologi & Market magazine no. 8 (April 1998)", Orologi & Market (Italy), 1998-04
* ''Orologi & Market'', Italian collector magazine, April 1998, page 44
* [https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-first-rolex-daytona-by-benjamin-clymer Historical Perspectives: The Very First Rolex Daytona] — Benjamin Clymer, Hodinkee, 2013
* [https://monochrome-watches.com/history-rolex-daytona-chronograph-1963-in-depth-review/ In-Depth: The History of the Rolex Daytona] — Erik Slaven, Monochrome, 2024


[[Category:Daytona]]
[[Category:Daytona]]
[[Category:Daytona Manual-wind]]
[[Category:Paul Newman]]
[[Category:Disputed variant]]

Latest revision as of 04:00, 27 September 2026

Daytona → 6240 → Neanderthal

Rolex Daytona reference 6240 known as the Neanderthal at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum
Rolex reference 6240, case 1'439'122, catalogued as “The Neanderthal” at Phillips Daytona Ultimatum in 2018.

“Neanderthal” is the auction nickname for a single stainless-steel Rolex Cosmograph reference 6240, case 1'439'122. Phillips catalogued it in 2018 as a pre-Paul-Newman or earliest Paul Newman-style dial and sold it as lot 32. A later Perezcope dossier disputes the dial’s period and argues that a photograph in an April 1998 issue of Orologi & Market shows the same dial in another watch. The page records both positions; it does not resolve authenticity from catalogues alone.

Core facts

detail value
host reference 6240
case stainless steel, case 1'439'122
catalogue date circa 1966, Phillips
movement manual caliber 72B, 17 jewels, as catalogued by Phillips
case size 37.5 mm, Phillips catalogue measurement
pushers and bezel screw-down pushers and acrylic tachymeter bezel, as described in the Phillips essay
bracelet Rolex Oyster reference 6635, end links stamped 57; clasp stamped 4.65
dispute Phillips presents an early exotic-dial interpretation; Perezcope argues for a later dial construction on an early 6240 case

What Phillips catalogued

Phillips’ 2018 lot 32 describes reference 6240, circa 1966, in stainless steel with manual caliber 72B, 17 jewels, a 37.5 mm case, Oyster bracelet 6635, end links 57, and clasp 4.65. The catalogue calls the dial “pre-Paul Newman” and says it has oversized registers, a white outer seconds track, and no Cosmograph, Oyster, or Daytona designation.

Those are catalogue statements about the offered watch. Phillips’ historical framing describes the reference 6240 as the first Cosmograph with screw-down pushers and places it before references 6263 and 6265. It does not provide a Rolex production document that proves the dial was made as a prototype in 1966.

Dial and typeface

The dial is the disputed component. Phillips describes a black-and-white layout with oversized subsidiary registers and treats it as an early design stage before the serially produced Paul Newman dials. Collectors sometimes call the typography “Mk1.75”; that is a later descriptive label, not a Rolex designation.

Perezcope’s dossier reads the sub-dial geometry, printing, luminous details, and Singer stamp differently. It argues that the dial is a later construction associated with a 6238 donor and points to an April 1998 Orologi & Market photograph that it identifies as the same dial fitted in another watch. The magazine photograph is a primary period publication for that image, while Perezcope’s identification of the dial is an interpretation. The catalogue and dossier therefore support competing readings rather than a settled chronology.

Case, movement, and bracelet

The 6240 case is not the disputed point in the published dossier. Phillips describes a stainless-steel case with screw-down pushers, an acrylic tachymeter bezel, and a twinlock 700-series crown. The lot lists manual caliber 72B with 17 jewels. These details identify the offered lot; they do not independently prove that the dial was delivered with the case.

The bracelet is catalogued as Rolex Oyster reference 6635 with end links stamped 57 and clasp 4.65. Those markings identify the bracelet components in the lot. They do not by themselves establish when the bracelet was fitted to the case or whether it was the original delivery bracelet.

Phillips sale

Phillips sold lot 32 at Daytona Ultimatum in Geneva on 12 May 2018. The result was CHF 3,012,500 including the buyer’s premium. The sale result records the market’s response to the catalogue description at that time; it does not settle the later dial dispute.

sale date house and lot catalogue description result
12 May 2018 Phillips Geneva, Daytona Ultimatum, lot 32 Reference 6240, circa 1966, case 1'439'122, “pre-Paul Newman” dial CHF 3,012,500

Limits of the evidence

The reviewed sources establish the case and the descriptions attached to the 2018 sale. They do not establish a Rolex archive record for a 6240 prototype, prove the dial’s manufacture date, or prove that a later dial was installed on the case. A physical examination of the dial back, case, movement, and documented chain of custody would be needed to resolve those questions.

Related references

Gallery

  • Phillips’ circa-1966 reference 6240, case 1'439'122
    Phillips’ circa-1966 reference 6240, case 1'439'122

Sources

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