Norman Alden wears a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

Howard Hawks made Red Line 7000 (1965) about a stock-car team and the women in its drivers' lives, and the title is the tachometer mark where the engine starts destroying itself: seven thousand revolutions per minute. James Caan, in an early lead, drives as Mike Marsh. Norman Alden plays Pat Kazarian, the man who owns and runs the team. Hawks later said of the picture, "I'm not proud of the picture as a whole," and Caan called it a joke, but the Los Angeles Times found it rapid, exciting entertainment, Cahiers du Cinema put it ninth on its 1966 list, and Quentin Tarantino has cited it since.

Kazarian wears a Rolex Cosmograph reference 6239, and this placement comes with paperwork. Rolex had become the official timekeeper of the Daytona International Speedway in 1962 and introduced the 6239 in 1963 as the first of its chronographs to carry the Daytona nickname, so a stock-car film two years later was a natural fit, and Rolex treated it as one: the company prepared counter cards for movie theaters and for retailers who sold its watches, promoting the Daytona's appearance in the film.