A square watch for a round-the-clock race: McQueen’s Monaco, worn in Le Mans, comes to market — where time, cinema, and speed converge once more.
Heuer Reference 1133B Monaco screenworn by Steve McQueen in Le Mans.
Credit: Sotheby's
There are watches, and then there are watches that carry the weight of legend.
The Heuer Monaco 1133B belongs emphatically to the latter category. Not merely because of its design — though that sharp-edged, unapologetically square case remains one of the most radical gestures in horology — but because of the man who wore it, and the world in which he wore it.
Steve McQueen on the set of Le Mans, wearing the Gulf racing suit that would become inseparable from his on-screen persona — and the Monaco on his wrist.
Credit: Collection Christophel
In 1971, Steve McQueen set out to make the most authentic motor racing film ever committed to celluloid: Le Mans. There would be no contrived drama, no artificial tension — only the relentless choreography of endurance racing at its most elemental.
To achieve this, McQueen didn’t simply play a racing driver. He became one.
And on his wrist, as much a part of the uniform as the Gulf-striped overalls, sat the Monaco.
Moments before filming, McQueen prepares for the circuit. The Monaco remains visible — a tool of timing in a film obsessed with it.
Credit: Collection Christophel
Chosen in collaboration with Swiss driver Jo Siffert — who served as both technical advisor and stylistic reference — the watch was already something of an outlier. Launched in 1969, the Monaco was among the first automatic chronographs, and arguably the most visually provocative: a square, water-resistant case housing the Calibre 11.
It was, in every sense, a watch ahead of its time.
The Monaco did not whisper. It announced itself.
The Heuer Monaco 1133B—blue dial, square case, and Calibre 11—one of the most distinctive chronographs of its era.
Credit: Sotheby's
In an era dominated by round cases and restrained dials, its geometry felt almost confrontational. The crown placed on the left — a quiet declaration that the watch did not require daily winding — only added to its intrigue.
Yet it was McQueen who transformed it from curiosity to icon.
Cinema has always had a peculiar ability to elevate objects into myth. A jacket, a car, a pair of sunglasses — and, occasionally, a watch — can transcend their material purpose and become inseparable from the man who wore them.
The Monaco is one of the rare few to achieve that alchemy.
McQueen strides through the paddock at Le Mans — half actor, half racer — the Monaco fixed quietly at his wrist.
Credit: PictureLux
Now, more than half a century later, one of those original watches returns to the market, offered by Sotheby's.
Auction catalogues tend toward the clinical — reference numbers, provenance, condition reports — but this is something else entirely. This is a relic of a moment when film, fashion, and motorsport briefly aligned with perfect clarity.
McQueen inbetween takes at Le Mans — the Monaco worn as naturally as the suit itself.
Credit: Pictorial Press
Collectors will, of course, debate estimates and outcomes. They will weigh originality against restoration, provenance against condition.
But the truth is rather simpler.
You are not buying a watch.
You are buying a frame of film that still moves.
From pit lane to podium: the Monaco, now a collector’s piece, returns to the market with provenance that transcends horology.
Credit: Sotheby's
In the world of collecting, there are objects that appreciate — and objects that endure.
The Monaco, worn by McQueen at full tilt down the Mulsanne Straight, belongs firmly to the latter. A watch designed to measure time, now entirely beyond it.
Between takes, the illusion dissolves: actor and driver converge, the Monaco still marking time beneath the cuff.
Credit: Collection Christophel
The watch will be auctioned at Sotheby's Important Watches sale in New York on June 15, 2026.
Estimate: 500,000USD - 1,000,000USD