Few watches occupy a place in collecting history quite like the Rolex Daytona with a "Paul Newman" dial. It is the watch that turned vintage Rolex collecting into a global passion, and among all the references that carried the famous exotic dial, the 6262 is one of the rarest. This 1970 example, crafted in stainless steel with a black Paul Newman dial, cream subdials, a steel tachymeter bezel, and pump pushers, represents a brief and fascinating chapter in the Daytona's story, produced for only a very short time at the turn of the 1970s. The Cosmograph was introduced by Rolex in 1963 as a chronograph for racing drivers, with a tachymeter scale for measuring average speed over a known distance. Its name soon became tied to Daytona Beach in Florida and its long history of motor racing, and the word Daytona began appearing on the dial. In those early years, Rolex also offered the Cosmograph with an alternative "exotic" dial design, featuring distinctive Art Deco–style numerals on the subdials, square-tipped markers, and contrasting outer tracks. At the time, these dials were not especially popular, and relatively few were made. Decades later, everything changed. The exotic dial earned its now-legendary nickname from the actor, racing driver, and philanthropist Paul Newman, who wore a Daytona with this dial as his personal watch for many years. As collectors began to notice the dial on his wrist in photographs, the design became known simply as the Paul Newman dial, and its desirability soared. In October 2017, Newman's own Daytona was sold at auction by Phillips in New York, becoming at the time the most expensive Rolex wristwatch ever sold and cementing the Paul Newman Daytona as one of the most important watches in modern collecting. The reference 6262 arrived around 1970 alongside its sister reference, the 6264, and the two shared a new movement that set them apart from the earlier Daytonas. The 6262 was fitted with a polished stainless steel bezel engraved with a tachymeter scale reading "Units Per Hour," while the 6264 used a black insert. Production of the 6262 lasted only around a year or two, giving it one of the lowest production numbers of any manually wound Daytona. That brevity, combined with the rarity of the Paul Newman dial itself, makes a 6262 Paul Newman an exceptionally scarce find for collectors. The dial is the soul of this watch. Its black surface provides a dramatic backdrop for three cream subdials, each framed by a thin border and marked with the square-tipped indices and Art Deco–style numerals that define the Paul Newman design. The running seconds subdial sits at nine o'clock, the 30-minute chronograph counter at three o'clock, and the 12-hour counter at six o'clock. A cream outer track with fine minute and seconds graduations circles the dial, its contrasting tone adding to the watch's distinctive character, while the Rolex coronet and the Rolex Cosmograph signature sit beneath twelve. The word Daytona appears in red above the six o'clock subdial, a small flash of color that has become one of the most recognizable details in vintage watchmaking. The luminous markers have aged gently over the decades, giving the dial a warm, authentic patina that enhances its vintage charm. Inside is the manually wound Valjoux-based Calibre 727, which Rolex introduced in 1970 for the 6262 and 6264. It was an upgrade over the Valjoux 72–based Calibres 722 and 722-1 used in earlier Daytonas, raising the frequency from 18,000 to 21,600 vibrations per hour for greater precision. The 727 would go on to power the Daytona through the end of the manual-wind era in the late 1980s, and the 6262 and 6264 were among the first references to use it. Winding the watch by hand each day is part of its appeal, offering a tactile connection to the mechanical heart beneath the dial. The chronograph is operated by two pump pushers flanking the crown. The pusher at two o'clock starts and stops the chronograph, and the pusher at four o'clock returns it to zero. Unlike later Daytonas, whose pushers screw down to the case for improved water resistance, the 6262's pump pushers operate with a simple press, a period-correct feature that collectors associate with the earliest Daytona references. Combined with the steel tachymeter bezel, they give the watch a clean, purposeful, racing-inspired look. The stainless steel Oyster case measures 37 mm in diameter, a size that wears comfortably and elegantly on the wrist by modern standards while retaining the compact proportions of a classic 1970s sports watch. It features a screw-down case back and a Twinlock crown, and the polished steel bezel catches the light beautifully as the tachymeter scale wraps around the dial. The watch is worn on a steel Oyster bracelet, a fitting companion that enhances its sporting heritage. Collectors study these dials closely, and small details help place a watch within the Daytona timeline. On many 6262 black dials, for example, the Rolex signature is printed in a blockier, bolder font than on earlier 6239 black dials, whose lettering tends to be thinner. Details like these, along with the configuration of the subdials, the outer track, and the red Daytona script, are part of what makes vintage Daytona collecting so rewarding. Each original Paul Newman dial has aged in its own way over more than five decades, so no two examples look exactly alike, and the character of this dial is entirely its own. For a reference produced for such a brief period, an example with its original exotic dial is a genuine rarity. What makes this 1970 Rolex Daytona 6262 so compelling is the convergence of rarity, design, and history. It combines the Paul Newman dial, the most celebrated dial in vintage Rolex collecting, with one of the shortest-produced Daytona references, powered by the then-new Calibre 727 and dressed in a steel tachymeter bezel and pump pushers. For collectors, it is a true grail watch, a piece that captures the moment when the Daytona was evolving into the icon it is today.