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In June 1970, Jack Heuer sent four of his brand’s new, funky, square-shaped Monaco watches to the set of the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans. Out of those six, four were fitted with leather bracelets—the variant McQueen wore in the film and in one of its most lasting images: the actor and his perfect slab of hair buttoning up his racing suit with the blue-dial Monaco perched prominently on his wrist. We know what’s happened to almost all four of these timepieces.
McQueen gave the first Monaco—with a specially engraved caseback—to his personal mechanic Haig Alltounian on the last day of shooting. That watch eventually sold at Phillips for $2.2 million in 2020.
Two of the pieces are now in TAG Heuer’s museum, after snaking their way through the hands of private collectors and eventually public auction. One sold at Antiquorum for $87,600 in 2009 and another for $799,500 through Profiles In History in 2012.
Now, the fourth McQueen-worn Monaco is coming to auction as the crown jewel of Sotheby’s New York auction on December 11th.
The estimate for this latest Monaco is $500,000 to $1 million. The price will likely be buoyed by the fact this is the first time the watch is coming up for public sale, and could potentially be the last chance to purchase one of the watches that the actor may have worn while shattering speed limits in his Porsche 917. “It’s the last of the four watches on a strap to come into play,” said Nicholas Biebuyck, TAG Heuer’s heritage director. “So it’s really a one-off opportunity.”
This watch comes with bonus racing provenance. After it left McQueen’s wrist, Bevan Weston, a mechanic who worked on Le Mans, purchased the watch at a discount when filming wrapped and wore it for 40 years. After Le Mans, Weston worked for McLaren and was part of an Indy 500 team in 1971. Weston eventually sold the watch to a private collector and passionate motorsports fan in 2010. After so many years in private hands, the watch is making its public debut at a public exhibition at RM Sotheby’s during Monterey Car Week between August 14th and 17th. Of the four McQueen-worn watches, Biebuyck ranks this one “as the second-most interesting” after the one McQueen engraved for Alltounian.
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