Heuer Monaco "Tropical" McQueen

And while we’re far from desensitized to the horological heat we get to meet and move, and there are still those uncommon watches that come through the door and get all of us drooling — watches that are so unexpected and unique that they become hard to let go of. The odd showstoppers that finds members of C+T staff deep in the throes of mental gymnastics in an attempt to figure out how we could possibly buy the damn thing for ourselves before it goes live on the site. And when this unpolished Heuer “McQueen” Monaco (ref. 1133B) showed up, with its insanely vibey “tropical” dial, the entire team was in its thrall before we could even get a lunch order together. Everyone had their iPhone’s calculators up and their noses down — it was the quietest the office has been since the day when Cam’s uncle Frank died! RIP uncle Frank. 

While this unbelievable “McQueen” Monaco has since slipped through our hands and gone on to a new home (and we’re all as blue about it as this watch’s dial was the day it left the factory), we made sure to document its magnificence in depth with an episode of our continuing video series What is on My Wrist. In the episode, Cam Barr digs into the things that set this particular 1133B example apart from any other Monaco we’ve come across, discusses the design features that make the Monaco an icon, and sings the praises of the square Heuer that’s anything but! If you’re a Monaco fan or just curious about the ways a dial can age to have a patina this painfully cool, this video is for you! It’s a love letter to a particular example that underlines just what’s so exciting about vintage watches relative to new ones — the personality that can only come when a timepiece is kissed by time itself.