How automotive dials & watches share a joint history

Watch guys are also car guys - the bond between our wrist and our feet may be more symbolic than we think.

BHPian hey.rudey recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Short disclaimer: This is not an advertisement of any kind, rather a collection of my own thoughts on what I have experienced and felt. Content (both written and visual) present in this article is thoroughly researched and shared with the consent of the external contributors. References and picture credits have been mentioned at the end. Please do drop in a few tips and suggestions to make my content enjoyable for everyone and to help it remain within the forum guidelines.

Prologue:

I was 16 when I started the process of restoring my great grandfather’s Swiss watches. As a teenager, they were fascinating to me. I saw them as more than a bequest left by the first generation of my family; the design, accuracy and history associated with them pulled me towards them. I would (and still do) selectively wear them for certain occasions and events, and would take them to places where I would learn more about them.

Mr Almeida’s HMT Kohinoor with a restored 1933 Studebaker

In all the outings I went to, I observed one thing: watch guys are also car guys. The way they describe their garage and their collection is very similar; as if a watch calibre is an engine, or a case shape and the shape of their cars were sketched by the same hand. I am well aware of the association of watch manufacturers with motorsport, but how deeply it affected modern-day drivers was something I wanted to find out.

After interacting with like-minded enthusiasts, and through surveys and research, I think I may have found an answer. The bond between our wrist and our feet may be more symbolic than we think.

I welcome you to this two-part journey of discovery, adrenaline, and smiles.

Chapter 1/ Jaeger & LeCoultre: Wrist, Road, Air

Two instruments that come close to watches are Tachometers and Stopwatches. The relationship between these two instruments was rather simple in the older days: push the tach to the max to see the stopwatch in the lows. They connected the driver with their cars and pushed them to be better behind the wheel. They were pure instruments; not just fancy add ons you see in modern sports or project cars. And may I add stylish too!

If we have to trace Clotho’s string back to its spindle, the origin of the first popularly known watch manufacturer’s instrumentation in a car may lie with Jaeger (pronunciation: Ja-Jay-r).

1934 MG Midget PA

Edmond Jaeger laid the roots for his iconic brand in Paris, 1880. He was an incessant devotee to the art of developing machinery that would record speeds; a pioneer in developing chronometers, tachometers, and clocks for aviation and automobiles. He soon collaborated with LeCoultre (pronunciation: Luh-Coo-truh) in 1907, to support their contract with Cartier to produce movements for their watches. With the onset of World War I, Jaeger had to diversify to stay relevant in the tempestuous times that followed.

With LeCoultre by their side, Jaeger began building aviation instruments for British and French pilots. The encomiastic response by these pilots was so revered that even top German pilots such as The Red Baron adorned his cockpit with Jaeger instruments. These instruments were salvaged from the Baron’s wreckage as per reports at the time of his historic defeat.

With the success Jaeger and LeCoultre had achieved in aviation, they soon set their sights on automobiles. And boy what a job they did! My introduction to Jaeger and Jaeger-LeCoultre was with the Maserati 3500 GT Vignale. In the 1920s, the two companies began making high-quality 4-day and 8-day clocks for European and American manufacturers. They cemented a factory with a workforce of 700 in Britain to avoid the protectionist measure adopted by the British government. Their instrumentations were then found in Bamford and Martin (Aston Martin), Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, Abarth, Lamborghini, Bentley, Citroën, MG, Lancia, Renault, and Rover.

Jaeger instruments in an Alfa Romeo 8C

Analogue instruments are now instruments that are widely celebrated by car enthusiasts. A few restomods such as the Singer 911 and the Alfaholics GTA-R have kept the analogue tradition alive. Many enthusiasts still source and use analogue instruments built by Jaeger, Smith, and VDO for their restoration or restomod projects. The reason for me to get so sybaritic about them: There is beauty in its simplicity. I find Colin Chapman’s words “Simplify, then add lightness” true in the case of these old dials. You may wonder why such a comparison, but you will get it when you look at these dials. Jaeger didn’t just build instruments for the cars, they built dreams for enthusiasts like me for projects that are yet to come.

1964 Lamborghini 350 GTV

Chapter 2/ Heuer: The King of Cool

I am not a big fan of TAG Heuer. But the Jack Heuer era watches; I WANT one. Especially the Monza.

These were THE watches for a racing driver. You would find these everywhere; be it the tarmac and oval, or dirt and gravel. The Heuer (pronunciation: Hoy-yer) family contributed a great deal to sports and motorsports alike. To date, their patents and inventions are used in major competitions by teams and enthusiasts alike. But what made Heuer so great in the past?

The answer lies in the innovations made by the Heuer Family. The patent of the oscillating pinion, founder Edouard’s creation of the dash-mounted Time of Trip Chronograph for automobiles and aviation, Charles-August’s invention of the Mikrograph stopwatch with an accuracy of 1/100th of a second, Charles-Edouard’s Solunar watch, and many more. The Heuers did not want to create timepieces; they wanted to create the best instruments of all time.

An early Heuer Catalogue (1963)

A huge part of Heuer’s success also goes to the genius of Jack Heuer, the last Heuer to helm the reigns of the family business. Jack displayed precocious traits from an early age; he inspired his father Charles-Edouard to create the Solunar at age 15. This was all based on what he had learnt from his school professor! At age 15, the only thoughts I had were of Star Wars. He was up to date with international tastes, and*between 1959 and 1960 spent a great deal of time in the US, creating awareness of the brand, building distribution, and establishing Heuer with clients such as the Sports Car Club of America. He would participate in rallies with his trusted red MGA sports car, a gift from his father for being the first generation of Heuers to graduate from university.

Jack Heuer

He was initially of two minds when it came to the family business, but all this changed when he bought majority stakes and ascertained control of the company within the first 2 years of joining. Jack’s uncle wanted to sell the company due to plummeting profits and lack of sales. In order to prevent the deal from ever taking place, he took a loan to purchase shares into Heuer. He was the gifted shares by his father, thus bringing his stakes to 51%. Enough to take control, but what after that?

A man on a mission, in autumn 1961 he decided to make a sporty chronograph watch, with a turning bezel and a 12-hour register. The result was the Autavia. The original Autavia was a stopwatch described by collectors as “Heuer's first chronograph to have a model name, as the previous chronographs were identified only by their reference numbers”. It was initially a successful instrument when it was introduced, but by the late 50s, it was in a quagmire situation.

In 1958, when Jack was 26; he participated in an automotive rally in Switzerland. A keen map-reader, he was appointed as the co-driver by the team. Their car was in the lead towards the end of the rally, but Jack misread the dial of the 12-hour dashboard timer by a minute, which caused his team to finish overall third. To add to his chagrin, the stopwatch he used was a Heuer Autavia. This resulted in the birth of the Monte Carlo stopwatch (and coincidently Heuer’s naming nomenclature) and the discontinuation of the Autavia stopwatch.

Autavia Stopwatch (left); Autavia Viceroy (right)

Early 60s Heuer watches were conservative in design. The Autavia wristwatch was another story. It used a Valjoux 72 hand-wound, 17 jewel anti-magnetic movement, that would perfectly work at altitudes up to 35,000 feet and depths of 330 feet underwater. It was primarily marketed for pilots, sportsmen and scientists. The word Autavia is a portmanteau word made out of AUTomobile and AVIAtion. The result was phenomenal. The watch had taken to track almost immediately; in F1, Le Mans, and Rallying. Jack promoted his watch and brand to drivers and sponsored them individually. Jo Siffert was a huge promotor of the brand until his tragic accident in 1971; this led to Heuer stopping all individual driver sponsorships, taking into account the dangers of motorsport.

Jack was early to realise the importance of prop masters in cinema. To be better than the competition, he wanted Heuer to be more known than them. He sought approval of Don Nunley to feature Heuer watches in his next big project, a movie well known in history by car enthusiasts: Le Mans. In 1969, Jack designed and released the Monaco, a watch unique from the ones he had made before. When he has presented the square case, he saw potential in it. He wanted to make a unique chronograph watch; something more recognisable than their previously designed icons. Monaco was also chosen to introduce the legendary Calibre 11 in the Heuer; a movement created in utmost secrecy by Heuer, Breitling, and Hamilton to bring an egalitarian competition against the rights of Zenith and Seiko. Monaco featured a metallic blue dial to mark its stand against other chronographs, a black dial was introduced for traditional buyers. The watch however did not do as well as the Autavia and Carrera as Jack would have expected.

Jo Siffert and Steve McQueen

The Monaco was the natural choice of Jack Heuer when it came to Le Mans. As per the different accounts I have read both Heuer, and McQueen and Nonely were eager to work with each other. Heuer provided six Monacos and two Autavias for shooting, as Autavias were popular in demand and low in numbers. The Monaco on the other hand, Heuer had an abundance of. Meanwhile, Steve McQueen wanted to be more like his friend Jo Siffert; a racing driver. He had learned how to drive from Siffert and borrowed everything from him; his style, jacket and his Monaco. McQueen chose the Monaco as his watch for Le Mans when asked by Jack Heuer, due to its unique styling. The crown on the left, and square case intrigued him. The rest is now history. The Monaco was put to sleep in 1971; only to be revived as a heritage model many years later.

One of the original movies Heuer Monaco watches

The third and probably the most iconic of Jack Heuer’s watches is the Carrera. This watch made Jack a puissant figure in watchmaking. The inspiration for this watch came from the most gruelling and daring race in the world, The Carrera Panamerica. In its lifespan of 5 years, more than two dozen drivers had lost their lives. It was an open road border-to-border race in Mexico covering more than 3500km with minimal safety precautions in place. Jack was in love with this sport. Inspired by the octane and adrenaline-fuelled stories of this daring drive, a simple 36mm case, distinctive sharply faceted lugs, applied markers and slightly stepped sub-dials.* This first design was produced till 1970, in a range of different dial layouts, colours and case materials. The Valjoux movement was replaced by the Calibre 11 in 1969, and the watch till date is Jack’s favourite watch. Tag Heuer commemorated Jack’s contribution with a special limited edition designed exclusively by him.

Calibre 11 and the Carrera Jack Heuer Edition

Whatever I have accounted for in this part of the two-part blog, is just a smidge of how deep cars and watches run. Heuer went on to associate themselves with manufacturers such as Ferrari to create history with them in F1 and Le Mans. Mclaren followed suit, and now Aston Martin has done the same. Heuer defined a generation of racing for enthusiasts and automotive historians like me. They were true to racing and celebrated the passion and spirit of motorsport with drivers, teams, and the audience. The “Chronographe Heuer” patch worn by racing drivers and McQueen is symbolic of this. The magic created by them was intense. Who could follow suit to this?

To be continued

References and picture credits:

Worn and Wound, Hodinkee, Tag Heuer, High Snobeity, Classic Heuer, Monochrome Watches, Quill and Pad, Time and Tide, Esquire, Haute Horologerie, Lux Mag, Calibre 11, Buzzufy, On the Dash, Wound for Life, Forbes, Getty Images, Philips Auctions, Rare Car Relics, Saxon Parts, Pinterest, Jaeger Tableau, Race Used, Watchnista, YouTube, Wikipedia, Revolution Watch.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Simply awesome thread. Thanks for sharing! For aesthetics & style (other than functionality), I much prefer classy analogue dials in cars. An Apple Watch can never be as classy as a Rolex or Omega and the same applies to cars = a digital cluster will never be as good-looking as a well-designed analogue instrument cluster.

This is perfection IMHO:

At night:

When switched off:

Manufacturers, look at this and get INSPIRED. So unbelievably classy. The instrument cluster is your opportunity to show off. It is a design highlight of the cabin!

Here's what BHPian Vid6639 had to say on the matter:

I simply cannot understand this new fad of digital displays. Car companies have cleverly fooled the public with graphics and fancy displays.

The screen is cheaper to make and most of the cost is software.

In comparison, the dials required precision manufacturing as well as different materials and illumination ideas. They were indeed a work of art.

With Digital displays, there is no character. One cannot tell a Skoda Octavia cluster from an Audi.

I wish this never came about. Moreover with improvements in technology the screen looks outdated much quicker than the retro dials. My 3 series dials have such an old-world charm to them vs the new 330i anti-clockwise digital display.

Here's what BHPian harshad9493 had to say on the matter:

I'm a car collector as well as a person who has a deep love for a few Swiss Watches. Your article at the age of 70 is an inspiration.

It's so professionally researched as well as its chronological description is very well laid out.

I hate Rolex and Omega as they are only show-off watches. My collection includes a Breitling Navi meter, Avenger, Tag Heuer Monaco, and one Omega Speed Master all vintage.

I just bought an MG and am trying to get its original dashboard cluster from England.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.