Heuer Autavia Reference 1163 Unpolished w/ Parnelli Jones Provenance
I’m thrilled to offer this Heuer Pre-Viceroy Autavia reference 1163. It is an amazing watch with provenance given from legendary driver Parnelli Jones to a member of his “Vel’s Parnelli Jones" racing team during 1970-1971. The Vel’s team won the Indianapolis 500 in 1970 and 1971 with Al Unser as the driver. Parnelli Jones is known as a legendary racer, but also the frontman for the Viceroy Autavia appearing in the advertisements promoting the watch and cigarette collaboration. You can read more about it in an article by Jeff Stein here . 1971 was a tough year for sales for Heuer and it’s possible that Parnelli’s purchase of these watches for his team helped inspire Heuer and Viceroy to hire him as the frontman for the Viceroy Autavias introduced the following year in 1972, which helped save Heuer during that period.
The Viceroy Autavias differ from this earlier model, which is sometimes referred to as a Pre-Viceroy or “Derek Bell”, as they had a fully demarcated hour register displaying 1-12 whereas this displays 3-6-9-12 only.
The dial is in great condition. The case is crisp and unpolished. The tachymeter bezel appears to be original and has a beautiful fade matching the condition of the watch. It comes on a black leather rally strap with a signed modern Heuer buckle.
The watch does not come with box and papers. We do not know the service history, but it is running well. This is truly a piece of racing and Heuer history that should be in the TAG Heuer museum!
