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A young property master placed six photos of top race drivers on the desk at Le Mans' racetrack in France in 1970. Steve McQueen shook his head and pointed to Joseph Siffert's photograph, saying, "I want [to filming of Le Mans] to look like him." Soon after, a variety of Heuers were brought to McQueen's set to be picked by McQueen. The king of taste chose the most unusual design: a Monaco with a bright blue dial. The Monaco reference number 1133 B is decoded thus: '11' for Calibre 11 (the newly developed automatic-chronograph calibre); '3' stood for Monaco line; the second '3' indicated a steel case and finally the 'B' was the suffix for a blue dial. It was technically revolutionary. The caseback was monocoque and contained the movement.mido replica
It had four notches at twelve and six o’clock. The top-case contained a square glass and a rubber seal beneath. These two pieces were able to lock together and make the unusual construction waterproof. Siffert gets ready to race with Heuer logos on both his car and suit. Jack Heuer told me a while back during a dinner meeting: "You know what, back in the olden days all sports watches used to be round. All of our watches were waterproof. My supplier Piquerez showed me their waterproof system for the square case design. I asked for exclusivity, and it was a success! Heuer described the new Monaco in period advertisements with a Swiss sense of understatement as "Avantgarde." Le seul cronographe automatique carre du monde!" (Translation: "Avant-garde! The only square automatic chronograph in the entire world! In a German advertisement, Heuer called Monaco "Spielgefahrtin" (playfellow). A graphic in the US explained why the winding crown moved to its left side (automatic, so no need to wind).Corum replica
In the same advertisement, it was stated that the Monaco was designed and built by a well-known Swiss stylist. Perhaps a young Gerald Genta? In the middle of the 1960s, the average watch size was 34 to 36mm. The Monaco style was a huge hit with conservative watchmakers. It is polarizing to say the least.
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