Sunday 5 August 2012

Rick Dewsbury returns...

After deleting his article about mixed-race families and the opening ceremony of the Olympics, MailOnline has asked Rick Dewsbury to turn his particular talents to reporting on an auction:


Dewsbury says:

The Tag Heuer Monaco has a black alligator skin strap and a stylish retro 60s style blue face. It was the first ever automatic and square cased chronograph watch.

In fact, as several comments on the article point out, McQueen actually wore a Heuer Monaco in the 1971 film Le Mans - TAG only acquired Heuer in 1985.

Dewsbury also says:

Tag Heuer was founded in 1860 but after McQueen wore the watch in the film the brand became even more popular among motor sports fans and drivers.

The watch is one of several automatic Heuer chronographs that run on the Caliber 11 series of movements.

But a comment by someone who appears to know their stuff suggests that's not quite right either. Wikipedia says:

In order to complete the look, McQueen opted for the newly introduced B model Calibre 12 Monaco.

Not knowing such details may be forgivable. But Dewsbury also comes out with this:

The movie star sported the timepiece in the 1971 action movie set in Monaco about the 24 hours of Le Mans car race.

And:

It is considered by some fans to be one of the greatest motor sports movies of all time for its portrayal of the iconic 24 hours race around the streets of Le Mans in Monaco, France.

'The streets of Le Mans in Monaco, France'?

2 comments:

  1. "Monaco, France"? It's never been part of France!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Le Mans is nowhere near Monaco! It's a separate city in the north of France, kinda between Brittany and Paris. Monaco is a principality on the Med coast, near the Italian border, about 1000km away. The Le Mans 24 Hours and the Monaco Grand Prix are entirely different events.

    ReplyDelete

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