A Heuer Autavia You Can't Fit On Your Wrist

With mechanical travel clocks so recently in the zeitgeist of watch collecting, we hoped to shine a little light on a lesser-known family of timepieces - the dashboard rally timer.  Distinctly different from factory-fitted clocks, rally timers are generally a set of clocks and timers that are mounted to a plate and then fitted to a dashboard. With a large focus on the racing and aviation industries, these large clocks and stopwatches were designed with legibility and power reserve in mind.

A Heuer Monte Carlo and Heuer Super Autavia pair recently sold on BringATrailer for $11,250

The Heuer Autavia

Certain watch models are just timeless, even if not in constant production.  Rolex has its Submariner, Omega its Speedmaster, and for TAG perhaps the Autavia.  The Heuer Autavia has a classic and supremely legible design, and has captured the imagination of enthusiasts for almost nine decades.  From a first release in 1933, the Autavia was so popular among vintage collectors that TAG released a re-issue in 2017 with updated functionality.

Vintage Heuer Autavia by @calibre11

What is not well-known is that the 1933 birth of the Autavia was not in the form of the wristwatch.  Named for their target market of AUTomobile and AVIAtion industries, the first timepiece to bear the Autavia name was a 12-hour stopwatch with four mounting holes designed to be mounted inside of a moving rally car.  This large-format stopwatch can be used by a driver or pilot to measure their performance, especially in an era without live radio communication.  And unlike other forms of racing, understanding elapsed time can be critical for certain forms of Time Speed Distance rally racing.  

An early Heuer Autavia 12-hour stopwatch via @dadmansantiques 

Dash Clock Complications

From this initial release, Heuer continued to expand the product line with different complications as well as multiple clock/stopwatch combinations mounted on a steel plate.  Among those are the Auto-Rallye, the Monte Carlo, the Master-Time, the Super Autavia, the Sebring, and the Rallye Master.  Each carried slightly different functionality, with functions such as a 1/5second register and an 8-day clock being commonplace across the models.

Birth of the Autavia Wristwatch

Jack Heuer, newly-crowned CEO of Heuer, had used these Autavia dash clocks in Swiss rallies prior to ascending to that lead role.  In fact it was from those rallies that Jack drew inspiration to make changes to the dash clock line aimed at increasing legibility.

It was no surprise that his first major product launch after becoming CEO was to create a wrist-worn chronograph based upon that popular design.  The Autavia chronograph launched in 1962 and quickly became a staple of the product line.  It is generally believed that the Autavia was the first chrono to feature a rotating bezel.

End of an Era

While the Autivia wristwatch lives on in the form of a reissue, the dash clock is an item whose time had passed.  Of all Heuer dash clocks, the model with the longest production run was the Master Time, an 8-day clock which has ties back to the Hervue dash clocks of the 1930’s.  From this beginning the Master Time evolved to keep up with changes in manufacturing -- first adding a plastic casing, and later making the transition from an automatic movement to Quartz.  The Master Time finally ceased production in 1985.

As vintage prices continue to rise, collectors are increasingly broadening their interests, which has caused prices to consequently rise on these obscure pieces of history.  Vintage sets, especially pairs of timers routinely command north of $5,000.  This does make us wonder: what current production pieces will become obscure wonders in 50 years?