Ten years ago I was presented by an automotive manufacturer for whom I'd been doing work, with a contemporary Tag Heuer Aquaracer as a leaving gift. A pretty miserable thing really - I regarded it as more Tag than Heuer. In contrast, my attention to Heuer has just been re-engaged by a photograph of Mauro Forghieri flashing his 1158 Carrera as he consults with Patrick Tambay in the cockpit of his 126C3 in 1983. This photograph is a Getty Image, so best not to post it here, but it features in the just published June 2019 issue of Octane magazine. Here, however, is Forghieri wearing the same watch, talking with Nikki Lauda.



The 1158 has particular motor racing associations, as with Autavia models and their connection especially with Jo Siffert. The gold variants, (1158 CHN), as worn by Forghieri, were originally made exclusively for the Ferrari F1 team, but Jack Heuer also gave one to Ronnie Peterson, (whom most of us from that era wish had secured a drive for the Scuderia), and this was sold recently for no less than CHF 225,000.

I'm not mad on gold cases, but the associations alone make this an impressive watch. Mauro must have liked it too, as the picture above is from 1975, eight years earlier than the image with Tambay.

 

Jack Heuer did a brilliant job marketing his family company, especially in America. He was one of the first to advertise on race cars and his association with drivers especially catapulted the brand in the early 60's. We have many famous drivers associated with a Heuer in addition to Petterson and Siffert like Andretti and the Autavia 3646, Rindt and his 2446, Hunt and the Carrera 2447...the list goes on.

 

I have a real soft-spot for Heuer. As said above they were marketed brilliantly by Jack and also supplied timing equipment to teams including Ferrari. Here’s a photo-cell timer of the type that would have been used at Fiorano in the early seventies. If you poke a camera lens inside you can see the PCB is even signed a Heuer. Very cool...