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Tweet Writing about watches (or just about anything else) can be frustrating. In February, I was excited about the four Autavias that TAG Heuer has introduced over the past year, and have two of them in my collection. I wanted to write a review of all four models, so I borrowed the two that I didn’t Read more ;raquo Tweet On November 11, 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland, Phillips auction house will offer for sale 42 vintage Heuer chronographs, assembled as “The Crosthwaite & Gavin Collection”. Almost all these watches span the period from the early 1960s through the mid 1970s, the period when Jack Heuer was at the helm, as the fourth generation leader of Read more ;raquo Tweet November and December are always busy months for watch auctions, and in Fall 2016 the vintage Heuers were well represented in auctions conduced by Phillips, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Watches of Knightsbridge. In this posting, we show the 45 Heuers that were offered in these auctions, together with their “final prices” (comprised of the hammer price Read more ;raquo Tweet There are few associations between a hero and his watch that have the enduring strength of the connection between Steve McQueen and his Heuer Monaco, worn in the film Le Mans. Introduced in 1969 and worn by McQueen in 1970, the “McQueen Monaco” has been re-issued in numerous configurations over the last 20 years. Pick Read more ;raquo Tweet About OnTheDash Online since 2003, OnTheDash is the most comprehensive source of information about vintage Heuer chronographs, dashboard timers and other timepieces. OnTheDash presents images of over 500 different models and executions of vintage Heuer chronographs, and scans of over 60 original Heuer catalogs covering the period 1935 through 1985. OnTheDash also includes registries of Read more ;raquo Tweet By Rich Crosthwaite and Jeff Stein Images by Paul Gavin/heuerworld.com On March 10, 2016, TAG Heuer announced that it would re-issue the Autavia in 2017, with enthusiasts selecting the model to be re-issued from among 16 choices dated 1962 through 1969. There is great interest in these “Early Autavias”, and at the request Read more ;raquo Tweet Today, TAG Heuer has launched the Autavia Cup competition, a month-long event in which enthusiasts will cast votes to determine which Autavia the company will re-issue in 2017. The competition consists of a series of head-to-head, knock-out matches, in which each winning model will advance to the next round of the competition. Sixteen Autavias are Read more ;raquo Tweet The Autavia Chronograph Heuer introduced the “Autavia” dashboard timer in 1933, with this 12-hour stopwatch designed to be mounted on the dashboard / panel of an automobile or airplane (thus the name is derived from the words “AUTomobile” and “AVIAtion”). Heuer introduced the Autavia chronograph in 1962, making it the first Heuer chronograph to have Read more ;raquo Tweet Looking at the world of vintage Heuer chronographs, most of the action centers around three models — the Autavia, the Carrera and the Monaco. Over the years from 1962 into the mid-1980s, there were over 200 executions and variations of these three models, ranging from manual-winding two-register chronographs, to more complicated GMT models, to quartz Read more ;raquo Tweet We launched OnTheDash on February 12, 2003, with an email message to 80 recipients. A few days ago, I received a message from one of these recipients, who I have been in touch with from time to time over the years. In his message he reminisced about the good old days, shared some thoughts about Read more ;raquo Tweet For years, Heuer collectors have stared at the image – its shows three Heuer chronographs, each bearing only the Heuer shield at the top of the dial and the word “Chronomatic” at the bottom of the dial. There are no model names on the dials, but the Heuer enthusiasts know exactly what they are – Read more ;raquo Tweet If you are reading this, then you probably already know the basics. The Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication watch is the most complicated watch ever produced by humans (without the aid of computers) and holds the record as the most expensive watch ever sold at auction, achieving a “hammer price” of $10 million at a Read more ;raquo Tweet The Reader’s Guide to the Upcoming Patek Philippe Auctions Over the next eight days, we will witness two historic auctions, in Geneva, Switzerland, that will offer for sale the most legendary Patek Philippe watches that our generation is likely to see under one (or two roofs). On Sunday, November 9, 2014, Christie’s will celebrate the Read more ;raquo Tweet One of the special pleasures of this watch collecting hobby is that, every once in a while, we get to actually meet the wonderful people that we chat with all the time, by e-mail, on discussion forums, through Twitter and Facebook, and by telephone. Over the years, one of my favorite “pen pals” has been Read more ;raquo Tweet With this morning’s news that celebrity watch collector John Mayer is suing celebrity watch dealer Bob Maron, for $656,000, in a dispute regarding the authenticity of some vintage Rolex watches, there came the reaction, “That’s why I don’t buy vintage watches.” While I will not suggest that any simple list of questions could have brought Read more ;raquo Tweet This is the first in a series of postings in which we will take some of the most interesting postings from the OnTheDash Discussion Forum, and present them here as blog postings. The following is derived from a posting on our forum on April 20, 2012, reporting on a March 2012 visit to the TAG Read more ;raquo Tweet Last summer, I became a contributor to “Longitude“, Christie’s blog about watches. One year later, it’s interesting to compile the postings about vintage Heuers that have appeared on Longitude. The following provides an overview of these postings, most of which were written by Meehna Goldsmith, the Editor of Longitude, although I am happy to have Read more ;raquo Tweet For vintage watch collectors, the difference between a “grail” watch and an ordinary watch is often a matter of small details. The texture of the paint, the length of a hash mark, the style of the serifs or the aging of the lume can all affect the collectability and value of a vintage watch. The Read more ;raquo Tweet The community of vintage Heuer enthusiasts is a great place to be right now. Over the past two years, the community has celebrated Heuer’s 150th anniversary, high profile auctions, the publication of books, blogs and websites, and even the discovery of new models. Prices for the old Heuers have been strong, even through the Read more ;raquo Tweet “Leap Day” (February 29th) is a special day that only occurs every four years. Watch guys who own perpetual calendars marvel as the “29” arrives at midnight; 24 hours, they are even more impressed when the date moves to “1”. This year, I marked Leap Day by playing hooky from work — traveling to New Read more ;raquo Tweet The following is from a discussion forum posting by Paul Gavin; sincere thanks to Paul for allowing us to post his words and photos here. Inspired by some posts on TZUK I got it into my head that I needed a suitable watch storage case. I started with 3 small aluminium cases bought off ebay Read more ;raquo Tweet Yesterday, on the TZ-UK Watch Talk discussion forum, I posted a photo showing four versions of the Heuer Autavia, Reference 1163, each with a black dial. A reader of that forum (under the name “even neve”) posted a message, stating, “Very nice – but don’t see the point in having four watches looking all the Read more ;raquo Tweet A few months ago, we had a posting about a very rare Chronomatic Carrera that had been destroyed by a local jeweler. The jeweler had the dial refinished, thinking that the customer would be pleased to have a nice fresh coat of paint, rather than the aged dial of the original watch. I would estimate Read more ;raquo Tweet Every once in a while, I receive a message from someone who is very excited to have recently purchased a “New Old Stock” chronograph, but is — at the same time — disappointed that the beautiful watch of thier dreams either (a) is not running properly (or is not running at all), or (b) has Read more ;raquo Tweet A couple of days ago, over on our discussion forum, David Howlett posted the question, “If you could only have three Heuers in your collection, what would they be?” This kind of question comes up from time to time, in a variety of formulations, so rather than posting my response on the forum, let me Read more ;raquo Tweet Shown below is an eBay listing for a Chronomatic Carrera, that should teach all of us a lesson. The Chronomatics are among the rarest of the vintage Heuers, with no more than 20 samples known within the community of collectors. Of these, the Chronomatic Carreras are especially rare, with only three or four having been Read more ;raquo Tweet The following story came to me from a reader a few minutes ago, and somehow it seems relevant to live auctions, rare watches and those who buy such watches at such auctions: Once upon a time, the King was hunting, and became lost in the woods. He wandered around for several hours, could not find Read more ;raquo Tweet I have recently received an interesting e-mail message, posing the question of exactly what is – and what is not – this elusive “New Old Stock” that we hear so much about. Drawing on a previous discussion on our Chronocentric vintage Heuer discussion forum, and realizing that opinions (and values) may vary considerably, let’s consider Read more ;raquo Tweet The year 2009 was an amazing year in the world of vintage Heuers. Our community developed in many new directions; prices for the vintage Heuers were relatively strong; and there were important events throughout the year. This column will present a few highlights of the year, along with some thoughts about what might lie Read more ;raquo |