Collecting

February 29th, 2024

Sunray DX — The Corvettes and the Carreras

In 1953, Chevrolet introduced the Corvette, America’s first true sports car. Fourteen years later, the L-88 option package turned the Corvette into a factory-built racecar that would compete in international endurance racing. This is the story of how the Sunray DX racing team and car builder / racer Don Yenko successfully campaigned the L-88 Corvette in the 1967 / 1968 racing seasons.

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February 5th, 2024

Retrospective — The “First Generation” Glassbox Carrera Chronographs (2015 to 2023)

Over the period from March 2015 through January 2023, TAG Heuer offered 10 versions of the “Glassbox” Carrera. The first Glassbox Carrera was a “limited production” model; the next nine were all “limited editions”. We will refer to these 10 models as the “First Generation” Glassbox Carreras.

The defining feature of the Glassbox Carrera is its crystal.

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January 7th, 2024

Collecting 2023 — Something Old, Something New . . . and a Sixpence in My Shoe

Before the ascendancy of Instagram and Facebook, collectors often published “Year in Review” or “State of the Collection” postings. These were often exhaustive reviews of trends in the market, the development of their own collections, and similar topics. Nowadays, many collectors will simply click a couple of buttons on Instagram to post thumbnails of their most popular postings,

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May 10th, 2023

Sotheby’s Offering Five of the Heuer Grails — May 14, 2023

Back in May 2020, I published a posting, Vintage Heuer – Chasing the Grails, that offered a definition of the “grail watch”, at least for purposes of the community of vintage Heuer collectors. While any collector may have their own personal “grail” watches, I suggested that from the perspective of the community, a vintage Heuer chronograph is considered a “grail”,

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December 27th, 2022

Scrapbook – TAG Heuer Hosts Vintage Collectors GTG in NYC

On December 8, 2022, in New York City, TAG Heuer hosted a dinner / get-together for the community of vintage collectors.  Held at Veronika Restaurant, this was the first gathering of U. S. collectors in over four years.  It was a wonderful evening for all those who attended, as collectors renewed acquaintances, met some new members of the community and – of course – shared some outstanding vintage Heuer chronographs.

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July 23rd, 2021

Auction Watch – First Half 2021 Highlights

Vintage Heuer chronographs were well-represented in auctions staged by the major auction houses during the first six months of 2021.  In this posting, we’ll look at some highlights of these sales to take a measure of the market and to see what might lie ahead for the brand.  Looking at the ebbs and flows of the vintage Heuer market over the past five years,

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April 27th, 2021

TAG Heuer Dive Watches – The Oldest, the Newest and 25 of the Years in Between

I have been collecting Heuer timepieces for almost 20 years, but must confess that there is one branch of the Heuer / TAG Heuer family tree that I have never fully appreciated and, consequently, has been underrepresented in my collection.  It’s all these dive watches that began appearing in the late 1970s — the 1000 Series,

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March 4th, 2021

A Noteworthy Watch — Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer, Ref 2446 (Screw-Back Case), to be Sold by Sotheby’s

In our May 2020 posting, Vintage Heuer – Chasing the Grails, we covered 16 watches that would be considered grails among vintage Heuer collectors.  Our working definition of a “grail” watch had three parts.  First, the model must be extremely rare.  For most of the 16 watches that we included, the diligent collector would do well to see one or two watches offered per year. 

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December 13th, 2020

$2,208,000 and Worth Every Penny of It! Today’s Record Price for a Heuer Chronograph

On Saturday, December 12, 2020, this Heuer Monaco chronograph, worn by Steve McQueen in the filming of Le Mans, was sold for $2,208,000, a record for any Heuer or TAG Heuer chronograph.  In this posting, we will consider some of the factors that contributed to this extraordinary result.

Background

Phillips held its “Racing Pulse” auction on Saturday,

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October 27th, 2020

Auction Watch – Monaco Legend Group Selling 24 Heuer Chronographs, October 31, 2020

Vintage Heuer collectors are often frustrated with the major auction houses.  We are accustomed to seeing Christie’s and Sotheby’s sprinkle a handful of vintage Heuer chronographs among the 250 watches that they will offer in an auction, and in many instances these Heuers appear to be “filler”.  Often, they are common models that are readily available on eBay or dealer sites,

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May 14th, 2020

Vintage Heuer — Chasing the Grails

I begin with a confession – I don’t really like referring to particular watches as “grails”.  Different collectors seem to use the word “grail” in different ways, with some collectors having drawers full of them and others suggesting that a real grail is unattainable.  Google the term “grail collecting”, and you will find yourself reading about the rarest and most precious baseball cards,

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July 9th, 2019

Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Celebrations — Thoughts on TAG Heuer’s 50th Anniversary Monacos

The weekend of June 14 to June 17, 2019 was a big one for celebrations.  On Friday, June 14, TAG Heuer introduced the second in its series of five Monaco 50th Anniversary Limited Edition chronographs; on Saturday, June 15, our daughter celebrated her 21st birthday; Sunday, June 16 was Father’s Day, a four-generation celebration in our family;

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