Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Steve McQueen’s watches on auction
June 11th Antiquorum will auction watches of famous people from the 20th century. Among them two watches worn by Steven McQueen and even his motorbike will be on auction.
The upcoming Anitquorum auction will include timepieces from twentieth century icons President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Steve McQueen. Of course there will be a lot of other watches will be auctioned, including several very expensive pieces.
The one with the highest estimated price is a Patek Philippe ref. 5013. The reference 5013 is one of Patek Philippe’s most complicated wristwatches. The 36mm wide and 12mm thick tonneau shaped yellow gold case, features a minute repeater, perpetual calendar and moon phase. Estimated to sell for a price between € 210.000 and € 255.000.
On auction are two watches worn by Steve McQueens, the legendary Heuer Monaco and Rolex Submariner ref. 5512. The Heuer Monaco was worn by Steve McQueen during the filming of the 1971 movie Le Mans. After the fliming he gave this watch to his financial advisor. The Monaco watch was originally launched by Heuer in 1969 in honor of the Monaco Grand Prix. Antiquorum experts have placed a pre-sale estimate of € 7,500 – € 15,000.
In addition, Antiquorum will also be offering Steve McQueen’s Rolex, Ref. 5512 Submariner produced in 1967. The watch was given by Steve McQueen to his good friend Jimmy Brucker in early 1980. McQueen stored his airplane, bikes and an extensive memorabilia collection in Bruckner’s airplane hangar at the Santa Paula Airport. Estimated to sell between € 7.500 and € 15.000.
Another Steve McQueen piece to be auctioned is his Scott motorbike. To be precise it’s a Von Dutch 1929 Scott 596cc Super Squirrel Engine. The motorcycle was restored, painted and pin striped in the 1970’s by the legendary Kenny “Von Dutch” Howard. By mistake Von Dutch lettered the date on the front number plate ‘1926′ instead of the correct ‘1929.’
Later McQueen gifted the bike back to Von Dutch so that he may personally own his masterpiece. This old Scott Super Squirrel Engine has is estimated to sell between € 60.000 and € 90.000.
4 responses
Nice stuff eh? I wondered about this some time ago (see: http://www.fratellowatches.com/archives/2009/05/19/steve-mcqueens-rolex-5512-on-antiquorum/), whether Steve McQueen has been wearing this watch himself as well. As his son Chad, also has a similar 5512. If Steve did wear this actual watch, than I think the estimated price is way too low.
I also found that Heuer gets a little ‘ding’ in their reputation as Steve McQueen’s watch, since he flipped it as soon as the filming ended. It never was his watch and only chose it for the movie. So far for TAG Heuer’s marketing scam.. 🙂 They should have called it ‘LeMans’ watch or something.
What also upset me a bit, was that Frank gave away quartz timepieces 🙂
RJ
Yep… the ‘Steve McQueen’ marketing is very thin indeed. I’m not sure if Heuer intended to use McQueen for marketing the Monaco, because it was released for the Monaco Grand Prix.
But somehow the Monaco got the name as being the Steve McQueen watch. I think, but i’m not sure, that the name was given by the fans and not invented by the Heuer marketing depertment. TAG Heuer exploited this to the max of course, but i would have done the same 😀
This just happens… people want to own stuff that was close to famous people. Personally i couldn’t care less, except for the nice ‘bonus’ value of course.
I think Omega does the same with the James Bond watches. Having been active on several Omega forums for years, there are actually people buying a Seamaster Pro because James Bond has one 🙂
RJ
Isn’t it cool how marketing works 😀
The James Bond and Omega Seamaster connection is 100% marketing. Ian Flemming never created a Bond wearing an Omega.
So after a few movies with Rolex and some lovely digital Seiko wristcomputers, Omega must have thought this was the way to go… and they even made it into a huge succes!