Tomorrow’s Bonhams New Bond Street sale will see a number of fine watches take centre stage, including a collection of 42 Heuers.
Alongside a headlining Cartier ‘Pebble’ from 1972, going under the hammer there will also be a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ‘Paul Newman’, circa 1970 (estimate £100,000 – 150,000); a Rolex white-gold Daytona Beach Yellow (estimate £40,000 – 60,000); a military Omega Seamaster 300, circa 1968 (estimate £40,000 – 60,000); and a Vacheron Constantin 222 from the 1970s (estimate £40,000 – 60,000).
Also among the lots on offer will be 42 Heuer watches from the collection of one private owner. With models from a three-decade period, stretching from the 1960s through to the 1980s, it is hard to choose any standout pieces, however, with a little persuasion, Bonhams global head of watches Jonathan Darracott and Heuer expert Arno Haslinger, who lent a hand with the catalogue notes, selected the following references:
Heuer Autavia ‘Big Sub’, estimate £50,000 – 80,000
Stainless-steel, manual-wind chronograph, circa 1960, signed Ed Heuer with a black dial and luminous baton hour markers. According to Mr Darracott, “The Heuer, Autavia ‘Big Sub’ is one of the rare survivors of this type of dial design and is very much a forerunner to all that followed, somehow the ‘Big Sub’ expresses the combination of the chronograph aspect over the watch.”
Heuer Monaco ‘Steve McQueen’ Valjoux 72, estimate of £10,000- 15,000
Stainless-steel, automatic calendar chronograph, circa 1970. The Monaco model was famously worn by Steve McQueen in the racing film Le Mans. Mr Darracott says, “This is an important design, without the foresight of Jack Heuer and his connections to both the motoring and film industries, the watch may have become an oddity but, instead, it is firmly cemented as a piece of its time that has survived in production and remains popular to the present day.”
Heuer Autavia ‘Jo Siffert’, estimate of £8,000- 12,000
Stainless-steel, automatic calendar chronograph wristwatch, circa 1974. This watch is so far, the only known survivor to feature the rare white ‘Albino hands.’
Speaking of the sale, Mr Darracott says, “The Bonhams Fine Watches sale includes a unique and rare collection of Heuers from one private owner. The watches really showcase the design evolution of Heuer over the decades and it truly is an important and exceptional horological selection to come to auction.”
The auction will start at 2pm on 14 December at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London W1S 1SR.
