Explore Heuer

Heuer’s story runs through stopwatch buttons, dashboard timers, and the wrists of racing drivers. Founded in Switzerland in 1860, the company made measuring elapsed time a central pursuit long before its chronographs became familiar trackside. That practical streak gives vintage Heuer its character: clear scales, purposeful pushers, and dials designed to be read at a glance.

The Carrera, introduced in 1963, distilled that approach into a clean chronograph with an unusually open dial. The Autavia took a different route. Its name combined automobile and aviation, first appearing on dashboard instruments before becoming a wrist chronograph in 1962. Rotating bezels and stronger case profiles gave it a more equipment-like presence beside the restrained Carrera.

In 1969, the square-cased Monaco brought a decidedly unconventional shape to Heuer’s automatic chronograph lineup. Its Caliber 11 placed the crown on the left, opposite the chronograph pushers—a detail shared with contemporary automatic versions of the Carrera and Autavia. Steve McQueen wore a blue-dial Monaco in the film Le Mans, fixing that particular configuration in racing-watch memory.