A couple of small points, as follows:

• Vel's Parnelli Jones racing team won the USAC championships for both the 1970 and 1971 seasons; here are the final rankings for 1970 and for 1971; Al Unser was the champion in 1970 and Joe Leonard was the champion in 1971.
• The seasons ended in the fall (October in 1971), so we might expect the watch marking the two championships to have been made sometime after October 1971, when the Vel's PJ Team won the second championship.
• Although the Viceroy promotion was launched in May 1972, I am confident that the identical models (1163 with Tachymeter bezel and the economy dial) were being made by Heuer sometime shortly before that date.
• So it makes perfect sense to me that this watch with this engraving could have been done sometime after the end of the 1971 season and before (or early in) the 1972 season
• I have spoken to Parnelli Jones a couple of times, and he does not recall every owning a Heuer Autavia; any attempt to connect this watch to a driver, rather than one of the numerous other folks who may have been associated with the team, will require further information.

: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Heuer-Autavia-Viceroy-1163v-1970-Indycar-Champion-Team-Award-/120943415020?pt=US_Racing_Fan_Shop&hash=item1c28ca0eec

: At a guess i would say many of you have already seen this ebay
: listing & i wouldn't mind guessing you thought the same as
: me.
: - is it genuine ?
: - why is the quality of the engraving so poor ?
: - does that read 1870 or 1970 ?
: - why aren't the lines of script parallel to each other ?

: The story may or may not be true but the asking price is completely
: unrealistic. If true then the engraving and story point towards
: a link to the team & not to Al Unser himself.
: My prediction - we will see this one sit on ebay a very long time
: whilst watching the sellers unrealistic asking price slowly
: dwindle down to a more Viceroy like price range.
: Anyone want to chime in with their thoughts on it being genuine or
: not.

: Cheers - Darren