*Unpolished* Tropical 1970s Heuer Monaco (Ref. 1133B) "Steve McQueen"

The Heuer Monaco is one of the most iconic designs ever to have come from the Heuer brand. The Monaco is a timepiece that is closely associated with racing, as well as the actor Steve McQueen who wore the Heuer 1133B in the iconic and classic 1971 racing film Le Mans.

The Heuer Monaco reference 1133 was part of a trio of watches that Heuer introduced in the year 1969 to house their then-new line of automatic chronograph movements. Heuer in joint partnership with Hamilton, Breitling, Buren, and Dubois-Depraz created and introduced the caliber 11 movements in 1969 to develop the first automatic chronograph movement. The ref. 1133B Monaco was a completely new line for Heuer and was created more as a design-oriented watch than the Autavia and Carrera watches that also featured tachymeter scales on them, the Monaco became immortalized as a racing watch when Steve McQueen selected it to use in his film Le Mans. He happened to choose a reference 1133B (“B” for the blue or “bleu” dial). 

Interestingly, the original design of the Monaco was actually not appreciated until much more recent times. The watch had very poor sales results when it was first introduced and was seen as a failure by the Heuer brand, resulting in a small production run from 1969-1975. Today, the Heuer Monaco is revered as being one of the most advanced watches of its time both stylistically and mechanically marking it as an icon of design.