1972 Heuer Autavia (Ref. 73663) "Jo Siffert Colors"

The Heuer Autavia came into production in 1933 as a dashboard timer for automotive racing and flying, where the Autavia name is derived, Auto and Aviation. The Autavia then later introduced in 1962 (The same year Jo Siffert entered Formula One) as the wristwatch we know today, and soon became the flagship for the entire Brand.

Jo Siffert wore an Autavia 1163, which featured an automatic movement with a date function, a white dial with black registers, and blue accents. Approximately 1 year after Jo's tragic accident during the World Championship Victory Race of 1971, Heuer introduced a new line of manually wound chronographs including the ref. 73663. These manually wound chronos continued in the steps of their older siblings with the cushion style case that was originally introduced to house the Cal. 11 movement, but were redesigned for the Valjoux 7736 movement and to also feature the crown on the same side as the pushbuttons, which operate the chronograph function.

Although the ref. 73663 isn't technically the Jo Siffert Autavia, it shares the same color scheme and is actually considerably rare. During its era of production, Heuer produced only a very small number of manually wound chronos, this is partially in part to them offering these watches as a "more affordable" timepiece compared to their world-renowned automatic chronographs but also to meet the specifications for military application, as an even smaller number of these watches were military issued. While both sharing the gorgeous dial presentation of a Jo Siffert Autavia and being one of the lowest production timepieces offered by Heuer, the ref. 73663 is one of the most wearable and sought after chronographs ever produced by Heuer.