I think when you say "collector" you can be referring to two very different groups of people.

Among the collectors who frequent auction houses and watch fairs (and of course the OTD crowd), Heuer has been on the mind for a while now. We've all seen prices explode at recent auctions, and these people are taking notice, as they have been for a while.

The collectors who are just starting to come around to Heuer are your average Watchuseek/TimeZone/etc collectors, at least from what I've seen. These guys love watches, but they're not the deep-pocketed types who have been driving up auction prices, and most of them don't venture far past modern watches. For most these guys (and I'm generalizing here), vintage Rolex and Tudor (mostly Subs and GMTs) have been the sole vintage pieces of interest, and for a smaller subset, vintage Omegas (Speedies mostly, but some Seamaster too). What's really struck me is that for this group, I've noticed a lot more interest in vintage Heuer, especially in the past 12 months. I've sold vintage Heuers to guys for whom it was their first vintage watch, and I'm seeing a lot more guys who don't own any vintages commenting about Autavias and Monacos. I think it's the modern sizing and styling of vintage Heuers that attracts these guys, and I think we'll keep seeing theses "collectors" showing more interest in Heuer in the future.