Collecting Vintage Heuer’s
Collecting vintage watches is a great hobby because its not just about the watches you have, but the stories of how you hunted them down.- the late night Ebay bargains, the fabled stories of stumbling upon a NOS Monaco at a watch store in the middle of nowhere and the restoration projects come good. The reality is that anyone could build an instant Heuer collection from scratch pretty quickly simply by buying from one of the specialist Heuer dealers…but I’m not sure that would be as satisfying in the long run.
To date, my collection has been built partly through planning (saving for 12 months for a Mint Monaco 1133B with original box and papers- must have looked and ruled out over 20 watches during the search) and partly through spontaneous decisions (the Calculator that I bought on a whim and is now one of my favourites). I’ve bought from dealers, from collectors, from Ebay and yes, even once from an antique market (although these are almost always disappointingly over-priced and poor quality).
While not wanting to leave behind the spontaneous purchasing, as my collection has grown I have been thinking more about the models that I don’t have that I would really like to add over the next few years. I’ve tried to limit the selection to the 12 that I would prioritise, so there are other Heuers that I like that I have left off the list..so here they are- the 12 target Heuers
In pulling this list together I went in with an open mind and no plan on wanting to focus on a particular type/ era of Heuer- they’re simply the watches that I like the most.
In total, there are four Autavia’s (including the Siffert, which I’ve already owned but then sold because I wasn’t wearing it), Two Monaco’s (both Cal. 15), Two Montreal’s and one Camaro, Silverstone, Cortina and Verona. Other observations:
- Eleven automatics, one manual
- Mostly from the 1970′s (although manual GMT and Camaro are on the edge of this)
- Ten Calibre 12/14/ 15 movements
- No Carrera’s!
So that is the plan- target these 12 to add to the collection over the coming years- not all at once, not now (unfortunately) and with no commitment that the hunt won’t be diverted by a purchase of a late night Ebay Buy-it-now Carrera with the wrong hands that isn’t working and “needs a polish and a few parts”.
All photos: Onthedash.com
[...] Stein has picked out his four favourites- the Autavia 11630P in particular is nice, but not the one that I am looking for, so I can relax and watch others bid. Personally, I am sceptical about the merits of buying a watch [...]