Long before the term “influencer” was invented to sell products, Steve McQueen was known as the King of Cool. His influence was such that it unintentionally turned a commercial flop into an icon.
Legend has it that when McQueen was training for his 1971 film Le Mans, he modeled himself after professional racer Jo Siffert, who wore a white jumpsuit with Heuer sponsorship patches. The same watchmaker was coincidentally asked to provide watches and timers for the film because of its role in the racing industry.
Heuer scrambled to get watches to set before filming began, and the Monaco was chosen for McQueen’s character because it was one of the only watches available in triplicate. The film flopped commercially but became a cult hit, and the peculiar square tool watch achieved immortality.
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More specifically, McQueen rocked the reference 1133B in Le Mans, and the square dial has wooed generations with its soothing grey-blue color, accented with red and white, and its geometrically pleasing layout.
Despite the multiple iterations that preceded the Monaco line’s 1978 axing and followed its 1997 revival, the 1133B has remained the ideal expression. A near-exact replica was released in 2009 for the watch’s 40th anniversary, and now the dial receives new life in the redesigned Monaco Chronograph collection.
