Taking its vibrant colour references from the 1967 America’s Cup winner the Intrepid (Heuer provided the timing equipment for this winning yacht), it was made in very limited run in c.1970 and to date only about 20 are known. Powered by a manual wind Valjoux calibre 7730 movement, one of the subsidiary dials in orange, green and mint allows for timing at five-minute intervals – the typical countdown between boats in a regatta.
Fellows sold an example with a discoloured dial in November 2016 for £19,000. Since then Piers Motley in Exmouth sold another in 2017 for £48,000, while Bonhams has offered several examples. One sold for June 2018 for a record £65,000 but others failed to get away.
The example pictured here topped the Luxury Watch Sale at Fellows (23/15% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham on October 26, achieving a hammer of £45,000, the lower end of the estimate.
