The Top 5 Chronographs: The Heuer Monaco 1133B -

The Top 5 Chronographs: The Heuer Monaco 1133B

In our series covering the top 5 chronograph watches of all time, we’ve already taken a detailed look at Zenith’s El Primero A385. This time, we’re going to cover another iconic entry which has a number of factors in common with that ground-breaking piece, Heuer’s brilliant Monaco 1133B.

To begin with, both watches were launched in the same year, 1969, and were the culmination of a fierce battle to manufacture the first automatic chronograph watch. Who actually won out of Heuer, Zenith or the third competitor, Seiko in Japan, is an argument for the ages, but nevertheless, ’69 was a good year for mechanical chronographs (and one of the last they would have for a while).

Secondly, both models stood apart not only due to their internal mechanisms but also because of what housed them. The A385 had an unorthodox and definitely ‘of the time’ tonneau-shaped case, while the 1133B is today celebrated for being the first ever waterproof square watch—even though it wasn’t, exactly.

However, perhaps the reason the Monaco is the more recognizable of the two in the modern age is less down to its abilities or its looks as it is its association with one of Hollywood’s most charismatic stars. 

Below, we delve a little deeper into what makes the Heuer Monaco 1133B so special.

A Little History

It was entirely fitting for Heuer to be very much front and center when the call went out for a solution to the watchmaking industry’s last big unanswered question; a self-winding chronograph movement. Arguably no other manufacture had contributed more to the development of chronograph technology up to that point in the early 1960s. 

Founded a century earlier in 1860, by 1887 Heuer had invented the oscillating pinion, which allowed a chronograph to be stopped and started with the push of a button. In 1911, they came out with the Time of Trip, a dashboard chrono instrument for cars and aircraft, followed in 1916 by the Mikrograph and Microsplit, stopwatches capable of timing down to 1/100th second.

By the mid-20th century, Heuer had become one of the ‘top three’ for chronographs, along with Omega and Breitling. And while there was an intense rivalry between them, each manufacture had naturally fallen into its own distinct segment of the market. Omega’s Speedmaster had claimed the space race for itself when it became standard issue at NASA. Breitling’s Navitimer was accepted as the watch for the professional aviator, while Heuer’s natural home was the racetrack. Drivers wore Heuer wristwatches. Cars had Heuer dash clocks. Crews used Heuer stopwatches and officials timed everything with their Heuer split-second chronographs. 

However, as popular as both of these models were, they were still hand wound, and by 1967 word had gotten out that Zenith was making great strides in achieving the unachievable, an automatic chronograph. Fearing being left behind, Heuer went into allegiance with three other brands in a consortium dubbed the Chronomatic Group to try and maintain their dominance of the field. 

When the legendary Jack Heuer, great grandson of original founder Edouard, took over the business in 1958, it marked the beginning of a golden age for the brand. The first wristwatch chronograph launched under this new stewardship, the Autavia in 1962, (its name borrowed from an earlier stopwatch and made up from AUTomotive and AVIAtion to demonstrate it was intended for both pilots and drivers) became an instant classic and is still in production today. Just a year later, another celebrated model, the Carrera, hit the stands and took its name from the most dangerous road race in the world, the Carrera Panamericana, a border to border rally across Mexico.

The first partner, Dubois-Depraz was the leading name in chronograph modules, which would be bolted on to a base movement provided by second member Buren, who were a significant manufacturer of calibers noted for their slimness. That was going to be an important factor due to the increased thickness of the additional module. The third participant was great rival Breitling, included for both their general expertise and their ability to share the funding burden.

The venture was codenamed Project 99 and in March 1969 the Chronomatic Group unveiled the Calibre 11 simultaneously in New York and Geneva. Beating at 19,800vph and offering a power reserve of 42-hours, the self-winding modular chronograph movement comprised Buren’s 3.2mm thick Caliber 1280 Intramatic microrotor movement attached by four screws to Dubois-Depraz’s 8510 chronograph module. 

The Monaco 1133B

Obviously, Heuer needed something for the Calibre 11 to power and, again like Zenith, the brand decided on launching a trio of watches to announce their new movement to the world. 

The first was the Autavia and the Calibre 11 slipped readily enough into the models already in production. The Carrera presented more of a problem. A slimmer, more refined piece from the outset, the watch’s case needed redesigning in order for the movement to fit. But Jack Heuer wanted more, an all-new creation which would really set it apart in a congested field. 

Fortunately for him, renowned case maker Erwin Piquerez had just patented a first-of-its-kind waterproof square case with exactly the right amount of avantgarde appeal to complement Heuer’s revolutionary mechanism. He came to an agreement with Piquerez to acquire exclusive rights to the design, setting the watch up with the chronograph pushers on the righthand side as usual, but with the crown on the left in a tacit statement which said it was no longer needed to wind the movement. He called the resulting amalgamation the Monaco after Formula 1 racing’s most glamorous home.

The watch debuted in 1969 in two versions, the 1133B and 1133G, with the 11 referencing the caliber and the last letter denoting the dial color, blue and grey respectively. And, contrary to popular belief, both measured a not-quite-square 40 x 38.5mm. 

Sadly, neither were big hits. Whether it was the nascent Quartz Crisis or the styling being just a little too radical, the Monaco was a tough sell. Fortunately, someone tougher was waiting in the wings.

As any watch marketer will tell you, the right brand ambassadors are worth their weight in gold and a good friend of Jack Heuer, Porsche F1 driver Jo Siffert, became the first ever Heuer spokesperson in 1970. Soon, the company logo was emblazoned on his racing overalls for all to see and, critically, Siffert was able to buy Heuer watches at wholesale to sell on to the great and the good of the fashionable F1 scene, meaning that they became a constant presence in the paddock.

But even better was to come. In 1971, motoring fanatic and indisputable King of Cool Steve McQueen signed up to star Le Mans, a movie centered around the famous 24-hour endurance event.

Siffert found himself appointed technical consultant on the film and McQueen was so taken with the driver that he modelled his entire look after him. Well, almost. Siffert’s watch of choice was the Autavia. For one reason or another, McQueen settled on the Monaco; specifically the 1133B. There might have been any number of reasons for the switch. Possibly it was down to McQueen’s naturally rebellious nature, or else he was attracted to the blue dial or the unusual shape. Or it may have been, as Jack Heuer himself has suggested, that because of such poor sales, the Monaco was the only one of the brand’s watches they were able to send the props department enough examples of. 

Whatever it was, McQueen and director Lee H. Katzin somehow managed to secure it more than 15-minutes of screentime and write the watch’s place in the history books. By the end of the movie, everyone knew what the Monaco was, and it is still indelibly linked to McQueen to this day.

Heuer came out with an improved version of their movement in ’71, the Calibre 12, with a stronger mainspring and an uptick in frequency to 21,600vph. 

Unfortunately, by 1975, quartz was king and the Swiss watch industry was dying a slow, painful death. The Monaco was discontinued with only around 4,000-4,500 being made and Heuer itself was bought out, first in 1982 then again by the Saudi group Techniques d’Avant Grade in 1985 to become TAG Heuer. 

Of course, as we all know now, the public’s love for mechanical watches was only hibernating during those dark days of the Crisis, and TAG reintroduced the Monaco as part of their ‘Re-Edition’ series in 1998. 

Since the company was bought out yet again for the last time (so far) in 1999 by the LVMH giant, we have been treated to an avalanche of Monaco variants, from ultra-high tech skeletonized split second models through to faithful recreations of those trailblazing originals. And sticking true to their vintage roots, the brand even enlisted Chad McQueen, Steve’s son, to help promote them. 

The Heuer Monaco 1133B rightfully sits in any list of the most important and influential chronographs of all time. Even if it hadn’t been linked to one of the silver screen’s greatest stars, its unique design and innovative innards meant it acted as a signpost at a major turning point in watchmaking history. 

As a side note, those watches used in Le Mans, six in total, have gone on to lead interesting lives as well. When filming wrapped, McQueen took two and gifted one to his financial advisor, Bill Maher who had managed to steer the actor and his production company through some heavy financial difficulties during filming, and the other to his on-set mechanic, Haig Alltounian. 

Of the others, two went missing straight away, and remain so. One used for closeups found its way into the hands of a private collector and sold in 2012 for $799,500 at a Hollywood auction, while Maher’s went for $87,600 in 2009. Both are now in the TAG Heuer museum in Switzerland. 

Alltounian parted with his in 2020 and shattered all records in the process. At $2.2 million, it stands as the most expensive Heuer watch ever sold.

That leaves one, which is due to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York on December 11th 2024, with an estimate of between $500,000 and $1 million, which seems surprisingly low for such an artifact. 

We’ll let you know!

Featured Photo: Mixed art by Oriol Mendivil for BKT Archive.

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