An Autavia without a chronograph
By Julien Moreau, Geneva ยท
The Autavia, in the Heuer catalogue of 1962, was a chronograph, and a very handsome one. Jochen Rindt's is the example dealers like to name-drop, along with the various racing drivers who wore them in the paddocks of the 1960s, and a good early Autavia has become a serious collector's watch.
This one is not a chronograph at all. TAG Heuer revived the name in 2017, after a fan vote on the design, and in 2019 brought out the Isograph line, named after the carbon composite hairspring the brand had developed. What you get is a 42 mm steel case, 12.9 mm thick, a rotating bezel, a black dial with a date, a closed back, a bracelet, 100 m of water resistance and the automatic Calibre 5 with 38 hours of reserve.
Two criticisms. Thirty-eight hours is short; a weekend off the wrist and you will be resetting it. And using the Autavia name for a three-hand watch strikes me as faintly cheeky, rather like naming a bicycle after a racing car.
At thirty-six fifty to thirty-nine fifty, though, it is a good-looking sports watch with a genuine bit of new technology inside, and it costs less than most of what I write about. For a younger collector who likes the 1960s look and has no wish to spend chronograph money, I think it is a fair recommendation. Just don't call it an Autavia in front of a Heuer collector.