This September Dreweatts offers a group of vintage Heuer wristwatches from a Private European Collection. The selection totals 35 and includes a number of iconic Autavia and Carrera models, of special note are two rare timepieces: an Autavia Military stainless steel chronograph wristwatch made for the Israeli Defence Force and a Carrera stainless steel chronograph wristwatch for the Belgian Airforce.
Other Heuer models in the collection are Camaro, Barrel, Montreal, Daytona, Verona and Cortina, as well as two stainless steel Divers’ watches from the 1980s.
The group ranges in date from the 1940s through to the mid-1980s with individual estimates starting at £300, ranging up to £6,000.
Lot 193, stainless steel chronograph bracelet watch: often confused with the 'Viceroy', the 1163 sold in the USA and was promoted with the Viceroy cigarette brand, the reference here has a similar colour scheme but was earlier and is significantly rarer.
Housing Heuer's first automatic chronograph movement, the Calibre 11, this watch also comes with its 'beads of rice' bracelet with signed clasp.
Lot 194, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: one of the last manual-wind Autavias, this comes with the snap-back 'compressor' case and striking red chronograph hand to match the red hash marks in the minute track.
Lot 195, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: the smart watch of its era, this model combines a slide-rule calculator with an automatic chronograph. The watch was marketed to engineers and scientists as clients who would most benefit from the timing / mathematics combination. An impressive piece at 45mm, the matte finish to the bezel makes it surprisingly subtle on the wrist.
Lot 196, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: named after the Chevy Camaro US muscle car in order to strengthen awareness in the American market, this unusually shaped watch was the last new line introduced before Heuer focused on producing automatic chronographs.
Lot 197, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: this rare little jewel from the late 1930s has a steel case, whereas many similar watches were plated base metal. It has a finely preserved gilt dial with the unusual 2Heuer2 badge below the 12 o'clock.
Lot 216, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: this rare variant of the 7753 Carrera was created for the Belgian Airforce in 1970. Made for one year only, the watch housed a calibre 7733 rather than the 7730 found in the rest of the 7753 Carrera production. Civilian examples exist but they do not have the issue marks on the case back.
Lot 217, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: this is one of the rarely seen examples issued to the Israeli Defence Force in the 1980s as shown by its issue number ‘M-1760’ and the absence of a serial number, meaning that the watch was a special order created outside of regular Heuer production.
Lot 222, stainless steel chronograph wristwatch: what better way to demonstrate the relationship between the Heuer brand and motorsport than to have the logo of a spark plug manufacturer on the dial. Made in the late 1970s in France its case styling and fume dial are indicative of the era. Despite the layout of the dial, this is only a two-register chronograph with the sub-dial around the date aperture a purely decorative touch.
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