A Heuer manual wind motor racing timing set for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is a very rare stop watch and clock in its original bracket. Most will be very aware of Heuer, or TAG Heuer as they are known today, as industry giants in the world of watch making. However, they were also very active in the world of sport's timing. Numerous handheld stop watches were made for boxing, rowing, yachting, even chess by Heuer. Not to mention John Glen wore a Heuer stopwatch on the wrist of his space suit in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the earth.
It is perhaps in motor sport timing that they are best known. For both wrist and on-board timers. Heuer introduced its first dashboard timer as early 1933. The Autavia–named for “automotives” and “aviation,” which were the two main fields these timers were being deployed, at the time. It was a dual-register chronograph, with hours recorded on the lower of the two registers, minutes on the top, and seconds by the center hand.
The first Autavia chronograph used a Valjoux 59 movement. Over time, Heuer phased out the Valjoux 59, replacing it with a Valjoux 340 for later versions of the Autavia. The newer version has its pusher to the right of the crown, while the older model has a left-side pusher.
Heuer produced the Autavia dashboard timer from 1933 until 1958, when it was replaced by with the Monte Carlo. This was, of course, not the end of the Autavia for Heuer. Four years later it would be launched as the wrist chronograph that is still making waves today. It is also worth noting that a number of design cues were taken from the design of these early dash timers for the wristwatch. With good reason. They are exceptionally handsome!
Alongside the 1933 Autavia, Heuer released a pair of timers called the “Hervue” pair. This pair of timers included a time-of-day clock called the "Hervue Junior" mounted on the same backplate as a 12-hour Autavia timer.
In and amongst the Autavia changes in the 1950's, in 1958, the Hervue was also renamed the "Master Time", so this now sat alongside the newly cornwed Monte Carlo. This is exactly what we have here; the Master Time clock, paired with the Monte Carlo timer. The Monte Carlo one is an early example with 'Patent Applied FOR' on the dial, its unusual “Decimal” outer track showing 1/100th of a second and the jump window just above the six o'clock position. The Master Time is also an early example. It has the thicker center sweep hand, and is powered by the Revue Thommen 63 movement; double-barrel with hack feature.
Long before electronic timing became the standard in motor racing, a stopwatch was one of the most important instruments at the track. Heuer built much of its reputation supplying precisely these tools, producing chronographs, dashboard timers and highly specialized stopwatches for drivers, teams and race officials. Among the rarest are those made during Heuer’s early association with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 1960s.
This remarkable set consists of two Heuer mechanical stopwatches mounted side by side in their original black twin holder. Each white dial carries the historic gold Indianapolis Motor Speedway “Wings and Wheel” emblem, immediately distinguishing them from the standard production version. Period Heuer documentation places this IMS stopwatch in the 1968/69 catalogue, with the model generally identified by Heuer scholars as Reference 503.220. The underlying stopwatch appears in contemporary literature as Reference 33.220, and some later sources have used 503.202, creating a certain amount of confusion around the exact reference. What is not in question is the specification: a 52 to 53 mm Heuer mechanical stopwatch capable of recording elapsed time to 1/100th of a second, with a three-minute capacity.
The unusual dial arrangement explains how this extraordinary degree of mechanical precision was achieved. Rather than taking the conventional 60 seconds to travel around the dial, the central timing hand completes an entire revolution in just three seconds. This greatly enlarges the scale available for fractions of a second and allows the operator to read elapsed time to one hundredth of a second. A central minute register records elapsed minutes up to three. The blue timing hands and red scales against the white dial were not simply decorative choices, but created a highly legible instrument intended to be read quickly in the demanding environment of a racetrack.
The operation is beautifully simple. A single crown controls all three stopwatch functions. The first press starts the timer, the second stops it and the third returns the hands to zero. Surviving examples examined by Sotheby’s are powered by the seven-jewel Heuer Calibre 7710, while contemporary descriptions of the 33.220 specify Incabloc shock protection, an unbreakable mainspring and a non-reflective black anodized outer cap. These were practical considerations for a professional instrument expected to withstand the movement, vibration and occasional knocks of life around a racing circuit.
The importance of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway signature goes considerably beyond the decoration of the dial. Between approximately 1966 and 1968, Heuer produced a very small group of watches and timing instruments carrying the Speedway’s distinctive Wings and Wheel emblem. Today, only five basic configurations are recognized: a silver-dial Autavia Reference 3646, three executions of the Carrera 45 Dato, and this 1/100th-second stopwatch.
This was an extraordinary period for both Heuer and American motor racing. Jack Heuer was increasingly positioning the company around motorsport, a relationship that would become inseparable from the Heuer name during the following decade. Indianapolis represented the highest level of American open-wheel racing, and the Indianapolis 500 was one of the world’s great sporting events. A Heuer bearing the Speedway’s own emblem therefore sits at the intersection of two important histories: the development of professional sports timing and the golden age of American motor racing.
Exactly how the IMS-signed Heuers were originally distributed remains one of the intriguing unanswered questions of Heuer collecting. It has been suggested that some were sold at the Speedway, while other theories connect them with officials, teams and individuals associated with Indianapolis. Heuer historian Jeff Stein’s OnTheDash records the belief that IMS owner Tony Hulman ordered the special Autavia chronographs as gifts for friends and business associates, but importantly notes that there is currently no documentary evidence proving that the IMS stopwatches were prizes or that they were sold through the Speedway gift shop.
That uncertainty is worth preserving rather than embellishing. What can be firmly established is that Heuer manufactured these special IMS-signed instruments during the period, and that the stopwatch itself appears in Heuer’s 1968/69 catalogue. They are therefore period products of Heuer’s relationship with Indianapolis, rather than later commemorative pieces.
The twin configuration is particularly evocative of the period. Mounting two independent stopwatches together allowed a timekeeper to record consecutive laps without losing time while reading and resetting a single watch. One stopwatch could be stopped as the car crossed the timing point while the second was immediately put into use. The elapsed time on the first could then be read, recorded and reset before it was needed again.
It was a wonderfully straightforward mechanical solution. Timer one records the first lap, timer two the second, timer one the third, and so on. Alternatively, the two watches could be used to compare different cars or separate events on the circuit.
This also helps explain why complete paired sets are so much more compelling than an individual stopwatch. The holder and two timers survive as an actual timing system, preserving the manner in which these instruments could have been used at the track.
At the center of each dial is the small gold Wings and Wheel emblem of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Its presence places these timers within one of the smallest and most desirable groups of special-dial Heuers from the 1960s.
The emblem has become particularly significant among Heuer collectors and racing collectors because of the extraordinary rarity of the IMS Autavia and Carrera chronographs. Examples of the IMS Autavia have become some of the most valuable vintage Heuers, with two documented examples selling for more than $190,000 in 2017 and 2023. The stopwatches share their Speedway insignia and period with these watches, but remain much closer to Heuer’s original business of producing professional timing equipment.
There is something particularly appropriate about that. Heuer may now be best known for wristwatches such as the Carrera, Autavia and Monaco, but the company’s expertise in precision stopwatches long preceded them. Instruments like these were tools rather than accessories. Their purpose was to measure an event accurately, quickly and repeatedly.
Surviving Indianapolis Motor Speedway stopwatches appear to be exceptionally scarce. When Sotheby’s offered a matched pair from the collection of noted Heuer historian Jeff Stein in its 2024 Heuer Champions auction, the auction house stated that fewer than ten individual IMS stopwatches were known to have appeared on the market. That particular pair was housed in a red rubber holder branded for Champion Spark Plugs, one of the leading sponsors of Indianapolis racing during the period. We also have handled and sold the exact same set which we sold through Sothebys and was acquired by TAG Heuer for their museum, which we were lucky enough to attend and see earlier in 2026.
Importantly, another surviving matched pair has been documented in the same type of black Heuer-branded twin housing seen here. That set was reportedly acquired from the estate of a photographer who worked for the Indianapolis Star, the newspaper that has covered the Indianapolis 500 since its earliest years. This provides a useful surviving comparison for the configuration of the present set and demonstrates that the black twin housing was used with paired IMS timers.
Today these stopwatches occupy an unusual place within vintage Heuer collecting. They are simultaneously pieces of professional timing equipment, objects from the mechanical age of motor racing and members of the tiny family of Heuer instruments produced with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway emblem.
More than half a century later, their appeal lies largely in their honesty of purpose. Everything about them was designed around the simple problem of measuring a racing car as accurately as mechanical technology allowed. Two movements, two highly legible dials, a holder and a pair of extraordinarily fast central hands.
Before computers, transponders and electronic timing screens became commonplace at the racetrack, this was how fractions of a second were captured.
And at Indianapolis, fractions of a second have always mattered.
THe set is presented in excellent condition throughout. Both are functioning correctly, and the case is in superb condition, witht he original detachable lanyard, designed to be worn around the neck. The dials are bright and perfect. If you are looking to add a piece of motor racing, American motor racing and Heuer history into your collection it is hard to think of a better piece.
