Here is a great column from Motor Sports magazine, in which they introduce the theme of their August 2010 issue, "1970, Year Zero for the Modern Age". The column is interesting, and it has also attracted some interesting comments. In one of the comments (copied below), someone makes the point that January 1, 1968 was actually "the absolute turning point" for motor racing, as that is when car advertising / sponsorship was fully allowed for the first time.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.co.uk/2010/06/24/1970-%e2%80%93-a-year-of-change/

As you might expect, the magazine has an excellent article about the filming of Le Mans, and if you get the 10X loupe on the printed pages, you will spot some great looking Heuers in the photos that accompany this article.

We often discuss the parallel universes of motor sports and watches; this discussion of 1970, as "year zero" of the modern era in motor sports, has many parallels in the world of vinatge watches, with the introduction of the automatic chronographs (in 1969) and the filming of Le Mans (in 1970).

So tell me . . . what is "Year Zero" for the vintage Heuers (or perhaps for today's collectors of the vintage Heuers)? Would year zero be 1969/1970, with the intorduction of the Caliber 11 (and related chronographs, Siffert and McQueen)? Or maybe a few years earlier, when they put the names "Autavia" and "Carrera" on the dials?

Jeff

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Mike Kavanagh: June 25th, 2010 11:40am
There have been many ground zeroes in F1 – and motor racing as a whole – but the absolute turning point was January 1st, 1968, the day on which car advertising/sponsorship was fully allowed for the first time. Immediately, F1 (and most other forms of motor sport) became a business, and stopped being a sport. If I remember correctly (I usually don’t), the Lotus Tasman cars were the first British cars to carry advertising in the Gold Leaf colours. The decision to allow this overt commercialism changed everything and leads directly to F1 (and others) today. Whether we treat this one decision as ground zero is a matter of individual opinion. But, while 1970 was a year of substantial and substantive change, 1968 was the year that a single decision changed everything – forever.