a picture at the Goodwood Festival signing copie(s) of Arno's book in Jasper Bitter's booth one or two years ago. Does that mean we now call the modern Navitimer the Derek Bell Navitimer? No, of course not, that would be silly. Automobilic post rings true, although I don't have a problem with anyone calling the 1133B a "McQueen Monaco" since that is the dial configuration Monaco he wore in Le Mans (even though he was really a Rolex aficionado in "real" life) and identifies that watch as such to so many people. If we hear "McQueen Monaco" we define it as Cal 11/12 with blue dial. Then again, there are those (especially on e-bay) who refer to the re-edition Monaco's with blue dials as a "McQueen Monaco", too . . . . . . ouch!

By the way, speaking of Jasper, what has he been up to lately? I miss his colorful posts; especially his reports on car events he has displayed his nice Heuer booth at. I hope he and Iris are doing well and are fully recovered from their frightening accident last year. We miss you two folks! Please let us know you are doing okay!
Steve

: I'm pretty tired of this attribution of racing driver names to
: Heuer watches. Except for the Siffert Autavia, which has a very
: specific history, I think it's a load of hooey. Even calling
: something a McQueen is in my opinion sort of dumb -sure he wore
: one in the movie (it was product placement, even then), but in
: real life he didn't wear a Monaco from what I have read. Here's
: why:
: Unless the driver in question actually was closely associated with
: the watch at the time in a promotional sense (like Clay
: Regazzoni with the Silverstone I suppose?) it seems like
: over-eagerness to assign some sort of provenance or significance
: to the watch that doesn't really exist. So what if Derek Bell
: had an Autavia at one point? He also wore rolex daytonas, too,
: didn't he?
: In short, I would prefer if people said that it was an Autavia
: "as worn by Derek Bell" than calling it a "Derek
: Bell" as if this is some sort of model designation or
: endorsement on Bell's part.

: Having said that, I am dying to get my hands on a Jim Clark
: Breitling Top Time! ;-P