As most of you probably know, that's an early "Siffert" Autavia 1163T, which dates to about 1969 as you can see by the polished hands. I got it from fellow OTDer Shaun, who took pity on my "paint by numbers" Autavia post, and sold me this very fine watch. (If he could give up something this nice so easily, I'd love to see what else he's got.)
It too me a while to realize this, but this watch dates to just about the time I got my own first watch. It was a little stainless mechanical watch that had a tiny Mercury space capsule orbiting the dial in lieu of a second hand. Being 26th Street's answer to Jules Bergman, knowing every little detail about every space flight, I thought it was the coolest thing.
So as a nod to my now mostly latent interest in thing astronautical (although I did recently watch Apollo 13 twice) I bought an 861 Speedmaster which is my everyday watch.
And that same year, with Mario Andretti's dramatic win at Indianapolis (and a lot of Speed Racer episodes) I became, and still am, a race fan.
And that's why I bought this watch. It's a nod to racing's not-so-good old days. when not a month would go by without a driver being killed somewhere. It says something when a little boy has to pick his favorites not because of their cool car or their on-track flair, but on the basis of who's likely to survive. (Hence my allegiance to the oh-so-carefull Jackie Stewart and later Alain Prost)
I wasn't a huge Jo Siffert fan exactly, but I remember his place in history as the last guy to win an F1 race in a "privateer" car. Rob Walker, Road & Track's F1 journalist, bought a Lotus from Colin Chapman, painted it blue, handed it to Siffert and won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. Three years later, Siffert would die in a non-championship F1 race at the same track. (I wonder if Walker had a thing for guys with funny little moustaches--Graham Hill was his driver after Seppi left for March and then BRM.)
I know there's some small controversy as to what constitutes a "real" Siffert. This one was around while Seppi was still alive--I can't believe that these guys actually wore their watches onto the track--so that's good enough for me.
In the end, I see this watch as another little nod to a bunch of young men who risked their lives, week after week, and especially, those, like Jo Siffert, who lost that gamble. And a celebration of better times when a kid can pick a driver in the expectation that one day he'll get to see him retire.
best
Allen St. John

P.S. What's the Siffert sitting on? That's a special Super Bowl commemorative Croc, a memento of the best Tuesday night party of my life on South Beach, with great Cuban food, top shelf liquor, and women playing beach volleyball in day-glo bikinis.
Ah, the simple pleasures.
And FWIW, even though this was taken outside with no flash, the second hand is a much darker "royal blue" in real life. This watch is unmolested.