Heuer Monaco Ref. 1133 'Steve McQueen'

Project 99 and a square case

In the late 1960s, the race was on to build an automatic chronograph. Heuer joined a secret consortium, known as Project 99, with Breitling, Hamilton-Buren and the module maker Dubois Dépraz. Their solution, the Chronomatic Caliber 11, was an automatic micro-rotor chronograph, and the Monaco that housed it was one of the world's first automatic chronograph watches, alongside the Zenith El Primero.

Heuer introduced the Monaco 1133B with the new movement on March 3, 1969, in simultaneous presentations in Geneva and New York. Jack Heuer wanted something radical to carry it. He worked with the Swiss case maker Erwin Piquerez, whose water-resistant square case made the Monaco the first square, water-resistant automatic chronograph.

The design broke every convention: a large square case, a metallic blue dial with white sub-dials, a bright red minute hand, a domed plastic crystal and, most visibly, the crown on the left side of the case. The watch was named for the famous Formula One race in Monaco.

Jack Heuer, Jo Siffert and Steve McQueen

Heuer had built its identity around motorsport timing, and Jack Heuer worked closely with the Swiss racing driver Jo Siffert, who wore a Heuer Autavia and sold Heuer watches to fellow drivers in the pit lane. When Steve McQueen planned Le Mans, his passion project about endurance racing, he wanted his character, Michael Delaney, to be modeled on Siffert: a Gulf-liveried Porsche 917K, a white racing suit with a large 'Heuer Chronograph' patch on the chest, and a Heuer on the wrist.

McQueen was a serious racer in his own right. He bought a Porsche 356A Speedster in 1958 with one of his first acting paychecks, won his first Sports Car Club of America race in 1959, and in 1970 finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 908/02.

The film's property master, Don Nunley, steered McQueen toward Heuer's newest model, the Monaco, during pre-production. Nunley then corresponded directly with Jack Heuer. Archival records dated June 26, 1970, show Heuer delivered 20 automatic chronographs to the set, including nine Monacos, six with blue dials and three with gray. Sources on the film generally say six blue Monacos were used, and McQueen wore each of them at some point. One encyclopedia account says McQueen chose the newly introduced Caliber 12 version, while the catalog descriptions of the surviving screen-worn watches list Caliber 11 movements.

1969 to 1971: the moon, Woodstock and Le Mans

The Monaco arrived in an extraordinary year. Concorde made its first test flight a day before the watch's launch, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon that July, and in October the first message was sent over ARPANET. A watch that looked like nothing before it fit the moment.

Le Mans was shot from June to November 1970, including footage from the real 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, where McQueen's Solar Productions ran a Porsche 908/2 as a camera car. Released in the United States on June 23, 1971, the film had an estimated budget of $7.6 million and earned $5.5 million in North American rentals, but it developed a strong cult following, and the Monaco went with it.

The original Monaco was not a commercial hit. It was phased out in the mid-1970s, and later revived in 1998 with a redesigned look and again in 2003 with new mechanisms. The film did the work the sales figures did not: collectors now call the 1133B simply the 'McQueen'.

The film-set watches and what they brought

At the end of filming, McQueen gave one Monaco to Haig Alltounian, the film's chief mechanic and his personal mechanic, with the caseback engraved 'TO HAIG Le MANS 1970' and, by one account, his thanks for keeping him alive all those months. On December 12, 2020, it sold at auction in New York for $2,208,000 with premium, after bidding opened at $200,000 and ran about seven minutes. It was described as the most expensive Heuer wristwatch ever sold. An earlier McQueen-worn Monaco had sold in 2012 for about $800,000, by one account.

On December 6, 2024, another 1133B owned and screen-worn by McQueen for the film sold at auction in New York for $1,440,000 against an estimate of $500,000 to $1 million, which was reported as the second-highest price ever achieved for a Heuer at auction.

Don Nunley left the set with three 1133B Monacos and sold two of them around 2000. He kept the third, case number 159381, because he considered it the one McQueen used most. He sold it to a private collector on April 24, 2008, and it was offered at auction in New York on June 15, 2026, with a lockbox labeled '1970 LE MANS' holding more than 400 documents and a 2016 affidavit that it was 'worn by Steve McQueen most often.' Against an estimate of $500,000 to $1 million, it was reported sold for $640,000, described in one report as the hammer price.

Ordinary 1133B watches, the ones that never left a showroom for a film set, are a different market. On October 26, 2017, in the same New York sale as Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona, a new-old-stock 1133 from 1970, case 159867, with its Caliber 12, bracelet, boxes, guarantee and hang tag, sold for $42,500 against an estimate of $10,000 to $20,000. In the December 2024 sale, a Ref. 1133 with a 'transitional' dial sold for $18,000.

How to tell the 1133B versions apart

Collectors divide the 1133B into three main dial versions. The first, the 1969 Chronomatic, has a midnight-blue metallic dial signed 'Chronomatic' and polished steel hands with luminous inserts and square ends. On some, the metallic paint has flaked to show the brass beneath; extreme cases are nicknamed 'Paintless Wonders'.

Next came a transitional version, still with metallic midnight-blue paint and square-ended polished hands. The standard production 1133B, introduced around 1972, has a flat, non-metallic midnight-blue dial and brushed steel hands with red and luminous inserts and triangular red tips. Standard examples were made with Caliber 11 or 12 movements and offered on both straps and bracelets.

All share the same steel case reference, 1133, about 40 mm across the dial, 14 mm thick and 22 mm between the lugs, with a snap-on caseback opened with a Heuer tool numbered 033, and a plastic crystal. The gray-dial 1133G came in first and second executions.

From flop to icon

Few watches owe as much to one film. The Monaco was discontinued within a few years, yet TAG Heuer built a permanent line around its square case, marking the 40th anniversary in 2009 with the CAW211A, limited to 1,000 pieces, and the 50th in 2019 with a series of limited editions.

The film-set watches have become the reference points of the market: $2,208,000 for the Haig watch in 2020, $1,440,000 in 2024 and a reported $640,000 in 2026 for the watch with the deepest paper trail. A standard 1133B is the same steel case and the same movement. What separates them is the man who wore it.

The numbers

Reference

1133B (blue), 1133G (gray)

Caliber

Chronomatic Caliber 11, later Caliber 12; automatic micro-rotor; 17 or 20 jewels by example

Case

Stainless steel, square, by Piquerez; 40 mm across dial, 14 mm thick, 22 mm lugs; listed overall as 46 x 40 mm

Crystal

Domed plastic

Production

From 1969; standard flat-blue dial from 1972; phased out in the mid-1970s

Le Mans set

Nine Monacos delivered (six blue, three gray), per 1970 archive

Timeline

1. Mar 3, 1969

   Heuer launches the Monaco 1133B with the automatic Chronomatic Caliber 11, in Geneva and New York.

2. Jun 26, 1970

   Archival records show Heuer delivering 20 automatic chronographs, including nine Monacos, to the Le Mans film set.

3. Jun 1970

   Filming of Le Mans begins, including footage from the real 24 Hours of Le Mans.

4. 1970

   McQueen gives a Monaco engraved 'TO HAIG Le MANS 1970' to his mechanic Haig Alltounian.

5. Jun 23, 1971

   Le Mans is released in the United States.

6. 1972

   The standard production 1133B, with a flat blue dial and red-tipped hands, is introduced.

7. 1998

   The Monaco returns to production with a redesigned appearance.

8. 2000

   Around this year, property master Don Nunley sells two of his three set-used Monacos.

9. Apr 24, 2008

   Nunley sells his remaining Monaco, case 159381, to a private collector.

10. 2009

    TAG Heuer marks the 40th anniversary with the CAW211A, limited to 1,000 pieces.

11. Oct 26, 2017

    A new-old-stock 1133 sells for $42,500 at auction in New York.

12. Dec 12, 2020

    The Haig Alltounian Monaco sells for $2,208,000 in New York, a Heuer record.

13. Dec 6, 2024

    Another McQueen screen-worn 1133B sells for $1,440,000 in New York.

14. Jun 15, 2026

    Nunley's Monaco, the one McQueen wore most, is offered in New York and reported sold for $640,000.

The world in 1969

• Jan 20, 1969

  Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president of the United States.

• Feb 9, 1969

  The Boeing 747 flies for the first time.

• Mar 2, 1969

  Concorde makes its first test flight, in Toulouse.

• Jul 20, 1969

  Apollo 11 lands on the Moon.

• Aug 15, 1969

  The Woodstock festival opens in New York State.

• Sep 26, 1969

  The Beatles release Abbey Road.

• Oct 29, 1969

  The first message is sent over ARPANET, between UCLA and SRI International.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Heuer Monaco Ref. 1133 'Steve McQueen' is number 9 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (88 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Monaco was the first square, water-resistant automatic chronograph, and its crown sits on the left side of the case.
• McQueen wanted to look like his racing hero Jo Siffert, down to the Heuer patch on his racing suit.
• It took the film's property master to talk McQueen into the Monaco; Heuer then shipped nine of them to the set.
• A standard Monaco was lot 1 in the same 2017 New York sale where Paul Newman's own Daytona set a world record.
• Some early Chronomatic dials have lost their blue paint so badly that collectors call them 'Paintless Wonders'.
• The Monaco was discontinued in the mid-1970s, years before the film made it famous with collectors.
• McQueen finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1970, the year he filmed Le Mans.