Today, we received the sad news that Gianvittorio Molteni has passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. As I understand it, he had not been ill.

Amazingly, his last posting on the International Vintage Heuer Owners Club, a few days ago, was about his pride that the new book "Time to Race", included several of GVM's watches. Here is what he posted -- "John Goldberger's beautiful book is for sale, there are several watches from my collection inside, but I'm especially proud of these three." The three watches that GVM showed are the "Rindt" Autavia, the "Siffert" Autavia and an Autavia (Reference 2446C) presented to Rid Cooper to mark a rally victory. (The book also included photos of the Jim Clark Enicar from GVM's collection.) Below, I am including the photos that Gianvittorio included in this last IVHOC posting, showing pages from the "Time to Race" book, and I am also including three photos of GVM.

On his Instagram account (BoldWatches), you can see that he posted as late as yesterday -- https://www.instagram.com/boldwatches/. Gianvittorio posted the photo at Monza (shown below) on Instagram last month.

Gianvittorio was a huge contributor in the early days of our vintage Heuer community, and his discoveries of the racers wearing their chronographs were fantastic. He dug and dug through books and magazines, to find so many of the photos that have become our favorites. Gianvittorio had incredible passion for the watches, the racers, music, cars and motorcycles, and his MoMo brand coffee, as well as design and style, more generally. I believe that among the chronographs, the Heuers were his first love, but Gianvittorio was also passionate about the Enicar chronographs and other watches worn by the racers, including the Breitling Navitimer. Along with Jochen Rindt, Jim Clark was definitely a favorite driver. Lotus was the preferred car, both the ones from the 1960s and today's.

Of course, Gianvittorio always pointed out that the true "Rindt" Autavia had the "Minutes" bezel, rather than the "Hours" or the "Tachymeter". Fueled by this passion for the watches, he had little tolerance for the speculators and investors, or others who bought and sold watches. For GVM, it was about owning and enjoying the watches and their heritage, rather than the money. He was a unique personality, who did things his own way, and all of us benefited from the images and information that he shared with the community.

Of course, his friends should feel free to post photos or tributes, in the language of their own choosing.

RIP GVM . . . you will be missed by the community of vintage watch enthusiasts.

Jeff