Long associated with the racetrack, Jack Heuer knew the importance of precision timekeeping. When he lost a local rally due to misreading the dashboard timers for motorsports he designed during the 1950s, he sought to create more legible chronographs with dials and hands that were clean, crisp and easy to read. This experience clearly shaped the design of the earliest Heuer Autavias from the early 1960s, which featured oversized contrasting registers and large, luminous dauphine hands and numerals.
In 1961, Jack Heuer and his production team decided to create the Autavia with the name coming from a combination of the words “Automobile” and “Aviation” as their first named chronograph. Prior to then, Heuer hadn’t designed a chronograph wristwatch with a rotating bezel, and the Autavia would have this new feature with a choice of calibrations. Two bezel types were offered, one with 60 separate one-minute divisions that allowed the wearer to set a marker for a defined interval of time, while the second bezel had 12-hour divisions that would allow for another time zone to be displayed. An early Heuer brochure from 1962 illustrated both the reference 2446 and the reference 3646 under the title "New AUTAVIA Chronographs for pilots, sportsmen, divers and scientists”. Clearly, Heuer aimed to market this new collection across a broad spectrum of active professionals.

Phillips is proud to offer this truly superb, “First Execution” Autavia reference 2446 from 1962. It is without a doubt one of the finest examples ever to be offered publicly. Featuring charismatic, oversized white subsidiary dials that contrast beautifully with the untouched black dial, it is accentuated by its original “first execution” full lume hands. The luminous hour markers and bezel triangle have acquired a lovely mocha patina, together with the hands. Its case and original bezel remain exceptionally well-preserved, with all factory finishing remaining crisp and intact. It further features its original unsigned crown and early pushers. Finally, the watch is further enhanced by its lovely, original “double beads of rice” Gay Frères bracelet, with original and extremely rare ‘HL’ endlinks. The complete originality, outstanding condition, and utter rarity of this nearly 60 year old wristwatch will be sure to please even the most discerning collector.