Heuer Camaro

Why We Love It We’re crazy about Camaros here at Analog/Shift. No matter how many we see pass through our doors, each one gets us just as revved up as the last. But there’s something special to be said about the Camaro we offer here. This particular Camaro is a Reference 7220N. The secret to what makes it special is in the sauce—or, in this case, the reference number. 72 in this instance refers to the drive train that powers it: the king of all chronograph movements, the Valjoux 72. And N means noir, French for black, which this dial was until time did its trick and turned the black dial to the gorgeous tropical brown that it is today. Add to that a sharp case with that crisp factory finishing and you get a Camaro that you just can’t wait to take to the race course. The Story Heuer launched the Camaro in 1968. As something of an outlier when compared to the automatic chronographs Heuer would release the following year, the Camaro lived very much in the shadows. It had one of the shortest production runs of all the models, only a few short years, which led to its relative rarity today. However, rather than detract from the Camaro’s desirability, its relative obscurity only increases it in our eyes. It has a distinctive style, made evident in the case: a softened cushion with straight lugs. Thinner (and much more comfortable on the wrist) than Heuer’s “other” square chronograph, the Monaco, the Camaro wears larger than its 37mm would suggest. Moreover, the variance of finishing—polishing on the sides, brush finishing on the top—makes it visually arresting from any angle.