Heuer Autavia Reference 1163 w/ Parnelli Jones Provenance + Bracelet Pieces Unpolished

I’m thrilled to offer this Heuer Pre-Viceroy Autavia reference 1163. It is an amazing watch with provenance given from legendary driver Parnelli Jones to a member of his “Vel’s Parnelli Jones" racing team during 1970-1971. The Vel’s team won the Indianapolis 500 in 1970 and 1971 with Al Unser as the driver. Parnelli Jones is known as a legendary racer, but also the frontman for the Viceroy Autavia appearing in the advertisements promoting the watch and cigarette collaboration. You can read more about it in an article by Jeff Stein here.

1971 was a tough year for sales for Heuer and it’s possible that Parnelli’s purchase of these watches for his team helped inspire Heuer and Viceroy to hire him as the frontman for the Viceroy Autavias introduced the following year in 1972, which helped save Heuer during that period.

The Viceroy Autavias differ from this earlier model, which is sometimes referred to as a Pre-Viceroy or “Derek Bell”, as they had a fully demarcated hour register displaying 1-12 whereas this displays 3-6-9-12 only.

The dial is in great condition. The hands are relumed as the luminous material had previously fallen out. The case appears to be unpolished.

A similar example was sold by Jeff Stein in 2024 for $18,000 at Sotheby’s without a bracelet, which had been lost in shipment.

This is the only one known with the silver pieces of the original bracelet. The bracelet was badly damaged.

The watch does not come with box and papers. We do not know the service history, but it is running well.

PRICE: $8,900 (Item SBUXYT4034)