Heuer Camaro

“What is a Camaro?” “A small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” With these words, Chevrolet introduced the Camaro to the press in 1966. As these words suggest, the Camaro was meant to be Chevy’s answer to the Ford Mustang. While Chevy’s previous car, the Corvair, was a rear-engine design that was boxy and compact, the Camaro was built on the same body as the Pontiac Firebird and had the same front-engine drive as the Mustang. But unlike the Mustang—with its long, sharp lines and a boxy “Ferrari-like” front end—the Camaro displayed a blend of visual styles and shapes. Though at first glance the Camaro fit the bill of a “pony car” like the Mustang, its long lines terminated in unexpected curves, resulting in something that looked different from anything else available on the market. The year after its release, the world beheld it leading the pack at the Indy 500. Its distinctive look would prove the perfect inspiration for a watch created by Heuer in 1967. Dubbed the Camaro after the car, the Heuer Camaro possessed a design language all its own. Where most of Heuer’s previous chronographs—such as the Carrerra—possessed long lines and sharp lugs, the Camaro’s case was, like its automotive namesake, neither boxy nor round. Like the Chevy Camaro it was something in between, a square that terminated in rounded edges. The first generation of the Chevy Camaro ran from 1967 to 1969—the same production years as the Heuer chronograph. However, unlike the Chevy Camaro, which is still sold today, with new models being released as late as last year, the Heuer Camaro’s life was brief. Yet a renewed appreciation by collectors has seen the Heuer Camaro enjoy new life on the modern wrist. This particular Camaro is a Reference 7743NT, notable for the tachymeter scale on the outer rim of the dial. The dial in this case first saw life as a glossy black (indicated by the N in the reference number, which stands for noir). But over the years of use it has taken on a gorgeous chocolate-brown color that is simply breathtaking. When the Chevy Camaro was released, the executives at Chevrolet could hardly have expected that it would become a classic of automotive design; while we don’t know whether Heuer expected its own Camaro to become one, it certainly has in our eyes.