Extremely rare ‘1 of 20’ Heuer Skipper watch sells for £57,420

An extremely rare Heuer Skipper watch, reference 7753, designed in the late sixties to celebrate Emil Mosbacher’s second America’s Cup win sold for £57,420 in the Luxury Watch auction. It is believed that Jack Heuer only designed around 20 of these watches, circa 1968, following Mosbacher’s sailing win where his winning boat contained Heuer Chronographs. This particular example, nicknamed a ‘Skipperera’ due to it using a sixties Heuer Carrera case, featured as Lot 59 in our Luxury Watch Sale on Monday 26^th October.

The Heuer watch is powered to assist sailboat racers. Due to the effects of wind and water, it is impossible for racers to start together. Thus, competitors await behind the starting line for a horn or gunshot. The races start with a 5, 10, or 15-minute countdown, at which point boats are positioned as close to the starting line as possible before the actual race begins. The Heuer’s manual wind Valjoux calibre 7730 ensures the elegantly designed watch can essentially act as a timer for yachters, offering a 15-minute register.

The stainless steel chronograph contains a blue dial with baton hour markers, and a coloured subsidiary recorder dial to three and nine. The watch was fitted to an unsigned stainless steel bracelet with folding clasp. The green for the subsidiary seconds dial matches the colour of the yacht’s deck which won the America’s Cup, with green having been originally chosen because of its anti-reflective properties. The watch was sold in an overall good condition, and was also the only Skipper model produced not to feature a calibrated bezel.

The watch was sold to a telephone bidder after bidding from commission bidders for a hammer price of £45,000 which is £57,420 including fees.

Laura Bishop, Watch Manager, said: “We are incredibly proud to have broken the house record at Fellows for the most expensive Heuer watch ever sold. We knew due to the sheer rarity of this Skipperera watch that it would attract interest from around the world and the winner of this item has bagged themselves a real timepiece treasure. The watch sold as part of our hugely successful Luxury Watch Sale, and with this watch selling for £57,420, it shows there is still a strong demand for limited edition timepieces.”