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Lot Essay
According to research, this fine and unrestored Heuer Autavia is the fifth earliest example so far known.
The earliest and most desirable examples, such as the present watch, are referred to by collectors as the "First Execution". The dials are distinguished by their large white sub-dials contrasting against black dials and painted radium hour markers to make the time as visible as possible at night. Due to the aging process, the luminous material no longer glows for extended periods and will generally have aged to tone ranging from soft caramel to burnt orange. The hands came in a variety of styles starting with hands entirely covered in radium, referred to as ‘all lume’, seen here on the present watch, to a triangle-shaped insert of luminous material, and lastly a simple stick down the middle of the hand.
These watches were introduced at a time of transition and at least two "First Execution" Autavia dials are known with the "T" signature above "SWISS" denoting tritium lume, while most have radium lume. All of these early Autavia watches have unsigned crowns and pushers that are slightly smaller than later generations.
Heuer "First Execution" Autavia
"In the autumn of 1961 I decided with my production team to create a new ‘Autavia’ as a wrist chronograph. Until then we had never added a turning bezel to one of our wrist chronographs. We therefore designed this new ‘Autavia’ to have a turning black bezel with a choice of division markers. A bezel with 60 separate one-minute divisions, for example, would allow the wearer to set a marker for a defined interval of less than one hour; a 12-hour division would allow the time in another time zone to be displayed; and divisions of 1/100th of a minute would be useful for time study purposes... Looking back I can say that the ‘Autavia’ wrist chronograph was the first real wristwatch product I personally created for the company."
- Jack Heuer in his autobiography ‘The Times of My Life’, p. 66-67.
A portmanteau of the two disciplines it was aimed to encompass, that of the automobile and aviation, the Autavia was born in 1933 as a dashboard timer. It was superseded by the Auto-Rallye with a big central minute hand to make it incredibly legible, which then evolve into the Monte Carlo with digital hour recording. With the success of the Monte Carlo, the original Autavia dashboard timer was discontinued, leaving an abandoned catchy name. Jack Heuer and the design team in fall 1961 went to the drawing board to create one of the the first Heuer chronographs with a name and the first with a rotating bezel, allowing for a 60-minute timer, a rudimentary second time zone or a decimal scale. Launched in 1962, two variants were available, both manual wind: the reference 2446 for the three register version powered by the legendary Valjoux 72 movement as used in a certain Rolex Daytonas, and the reference 3646 for the two register version powered by the Valjoux 92.
While later examples made their way on to the wrists of such great drivers as Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert, and Derek Bell, it is the First Execution Autavia that shows the origins of this iconic model.
The earliest and most desirable examples, such as the present watch, are referred to by collectors as the "First Execution". The dials are distinguished by their large white sub-dials contrasting against black dials and painted radium hour markers to make the time as visible as possible at night. Due to the aging process, the luminous material no longer glows for extended periods and will generally have aged to tone ranging from soft caramel to burnt orange. The hands came in a variety of styles starting with hands entirely covered in radium, referred to as ‘all lume’, seen here on the present watch, to a triangle-shaped insert of luminous material, and lastly a simple stick down the middle of the hand.
These watches were introduced at a time of transition and at least two "First Execution" Autavia dials are known with the "T" signature above "SWISS" denoting tritium lume, while most have radium lume. All of these early Autavia watches have unsigned crowns and pushers that are slightly smaller than later generations.
Heuer "First Execution" Autavia
"In the autumn of 1961 I decided with my production team to create a new ‘Autavia’ as a wrist chronograph. Until then we had never added a turning bezel to one of our wrist chronographs. We therefore designed this new ‘Autavia’ to have a turning black bezel with a choice of division markers. A bezel with 60 separate one-minute divisions, for example, would allow the wearer to set a marker for a defined interval of less than one hour; a 12-hour division would allow the time in another time zone to be displayed; and divisions of 1/100th of a minute would be useful for time study purposes... Looking back I can say that the ‘Autavia’ wrist chronograph was the first real wristwatch product I personally created for the company."
- Jack Heuer in his autobiography ‘The Times of My Life’, p. 66-67.
A portmanteau of the two disciplines it was aimed to encompass, that of the automobile and aviation, the Autavia was born in 1933 as a dashboard timer. It was superseded by the Auto-Rallye with a big central minute hand to make it incredibly legible, which then evolve into the Monte Carlo with digital hour recording. With the success of the Monte Carlo, the original Autavia dashboard timer was discontinued, leaving an abandoned catchy name. Jack Heuer and the design team in fall 1961 went to the drawing board to create one of the the first Heuer chronographs with a name and the first with a rotating bezel, allowing for a 60-minute timer, a rudimentary second time zone or a decimal scale. Launched in 1962, two variants were available, both manual wind: the reference 2446 for the three register version powered by the legendary Valjoux 72 movement as used in a certain Rolex Daytonas, and the reference 3646 for the two register version powered by the Valjoux 92.
While later examples made their way on to the wrists of such great drivers as Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert, and Derek Bell, it is the First Execution Autavia that shows the origins of this iconic model.