Without question Steve McQueen is one of the most enduring style icons of the 20th century. As a quick peek behind the curtain, of the actors we included in our style icons series looking at Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Cary Grant and Robert DeNiro, it was McQueen you were all the most interested in. Which makes a lot of sense in watch collecting circles because, outside of the Newman Daytona, it’s McQueen who has the closest connection to horology thanks to the film Le Mans in which he wears a Heuer Monaco. And now one of those original Steve McQueen Le Mans Heuer Monaco watches is heading to auction with Sotheby’s in December.
There have been entire essays written on the Heuer Monacos in that film and many, many forum discussions about them. So let me give you the quick version of the story. Heuer provided 26 watches to the prop department of the Le Mans film. Of those, six were Monaco Ref. 1133Bs and of those, four were on leather straps and used on the wrist of Steve McQueen. Although McQueen did wear all six at some time or other according to a 2016 interview with the film’s prop master, Don Nunley, in the Wall Street Journal.
The history of each of the four leather strap Monacos is also well documented online. Two are in the possession of the TAG Heuer museum, which were bought at auction in 2009 for $87,600 and in 2012 for $799,500. The third, which was the one McQueen gifted to his mechanic Haig Alltounian, sold in 2020 for $2.2 million at a Phillips auction and is the most expensive Heuer to date.
Bevan Weston wearing the Tag Heuer Monaco Le Mans (right)
This fourth one was owned by Bevan Weston, a mechanic who also worked on Le Mans. He was the custodian of the watch for over 40 years, even wearing it when he worked for McLaren at the Indy 500 in 1971, before selling it privately in 2010. Now that private collector has put it up for sale at Sotheby’s, marking the first time it has been publicly available. It has an auction estimate of $500,000 – $1,000,000.
One thing is for sure, this is an exceptionally rare timepiece. The term grail probably doesn’t even begin to cover it. Considering where the previous models ended up, it’s unlikely that those watches will arrive on the market again this lifetime, if ever. Meaning this is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity for the right collector. One to keep an eye on come the Sotheby’s New York watch auction in December.
More details at Sotheby’s.
