Many watch connoisseurs receive personalized watches for their birthdays. But how many receive a personalized version of an iconic timepiece that they actually created" TAG Heuer celebrates the 85th birthday of Jack Heuer, its honorary chairman and scion of the company’s founding family, this year, with the release of a limited-edition Autavia model with a “Panda”-style dial. As Jack prepares to blow out candles, we present to you this week’s Watch to Watch, the TAG Heuer Autavia Jack Heuer Limited Edition.
The TAG Heuer Autavia Jack Heuer Edition is based on a wrist chronograph designed by its namesake in 1962.
First, some history on the Autavia: the first Heuer timepiece with that moniker was actually a dashboard counter for racing cars and aircraft (the name is a combination of ?Automobile? and ?Aviation?) released in 1933. Jack Heuer, at the time the head of the Heuer watch company that would later become known as TAG Heuer, revived the name for the wristwatch chronograph he created in 1962, during the Golden Age of motor racing. The Autavia wristwatch was notable for its rotating bezel, large snailed counters, and ultra-legible black-and-white color scheme. The watch, like other racing-inspired Heuer watches of that era, such as the Carrera and Monaco, became a favorite of many well-known racing drivers of the 1960s and ?70s, including Jo Siffert, Mario Andretti, and Clay Regazzoni. and the F1 legend most associated with the revival piece, ...