The Autavia name was first used by Heuer in 1933 when they introduced a dashboard timer, the name being an amalgamation of the words AUTomobile and AVIAtion. History tells us that Heuer’s first patent for a chronograph was in 1882, and their first wrist chronograph appeared in time for the outbreak of war in 1914, but Heuer’s first named chronograph series did not appear until 1962 and it was also called the Autavia. The watch was advertised with the slogan "those for whom life and a taste for adventure are one and the same" and was designed to be read easily by pilots of planes and cars when in the heat of the moment...

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The origin of this series consisted of the 2446, driven by the famous Valjoux 72, and priced at $119.50, and the 3646 (Valjoux 92 and $99.50) which came with options of hours and minutes bezels (latterly decimal) with the now famous 39mm screw-back case design with bevelled lugs. It had a wide Radium filled bezel and "all lume" hands, with sub registers that were oversized for clarity, often referred to now as "Big Subs". To this day, the 2446 1st execution remains one of the pinnacles of Heuer collecting. This case was used for the next six years, when Heuer introduced the larger compressor case and the dial, hand and bezel layouts changed. For a period of time, this ran concurrently with the introduction of the new automatic series in 1969 which was housed in a cushion case. Each of these versions are distinctly different but larger than the original Autavia as the trend by that point in the 1970s was for chunkier and more colourful watches.

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The one thing that ties together almost all Heuer chronographs from the 1960s onwards was their close tie to motorsports. It was without a doubt the most visible brand on the wrists of Grand Prix greats with Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert, Clay Regazzoni, Derek Bell, Graham Hill and Gilles Villeneuve amongst some of those seen wearing Autavias. With many teams wearing overalls bearing the Heuer logo, Heuer also supplied the timing systems and many of the cars were Heuer branded; Jack Heuer was certainly an early master of Formula One product placement! Of course, Heuer also targeted their watches at other segments, including the scientific, medical and athletic communities. However it was to be the yachting community that saw some of Heuer’s most beautiful creations, and the 2446 Seafarer for Abercrombie & Fitch remains one of the most rare and sought after of all vintage chronographs. To date only three have been discovered - truly a needle in a haystack!

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In 2017, the Autavia was reintroduced into the TAG Heuer line up as a re-edition, taking inspiration from the Jochen Rindt Autavia from the mid 1960s.

To read more about the vintage Heuer Autavia chronographs click on the link below to preview the Heuer Autavia 1962-85 book, which is filled with beautiful photographs and important collector info.

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