Alright, so I’ve been digging into this whole Steve McQueen watch thing, and man, it’s a rabbit hole! You know, Steve McQueen, the “King of Cool”? Yeah, that guy. Turns out, he had some pretty sweet timepieces.
First off, I started with the classic. I mean this one’s everywhere when you search for Steve Mcqueen watch. It’s the Heuer Monaco 1133. I watched some clips from the movie “Le Mans” where he’s sporting this watch. It’s got this dark blue vibe, kinda square, definitely stands out. I spent a good chunk of time just trying to find decent pictures of him wearing it in the movie. It is the team color of Gulf in the movie, which makes sense.
Then I found that he wore a Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox in “The Thomas Crown Affair”. This one is fancy. Apparently, it was a big deal back in the 50s, had an alarm and everything. I tried to find out more about this watch’s history, and read about some other similar watches like it.
- Next up, the Rolex Speedking from “The Great Escape”. Now, this one’s interesting. This one felt like a real detective job. I ended up reading all these forum posts about whether it was really a Rolex Speedking, trying to match the watch in the movie to old pictures.
- “Bullitt” was next on my list, and here he’s wearing a Benrus #3061. This one was easier to spot, it’s all black, pretty simple looking. I did learn that McQueen gave his stuntman his own Rolex, which I thought was a cool story.
- The last one I looked into was the Rolex Submariner from “Towering Inferno”. It’s a classic diver’s watch, and it fits his firefighter character in the movie.
Getting These Watches
I spent some time looking at where you can actually buy these. It was mostly just window shopping, to be honest. I checked out pictures and read descriptions, but, let’s be real, these watches are way out of my price range. The Heuer Monaco, for example, you’re looking at some serious cash for a vintage one. The others, well, they’re all collector’s items. Finding a real one in good condition is tough, and you gotta be careful of fakes, too.
So yeah, that’s been my journey into the world of Steve McQueen’s watches. It’s been fun, and I learned a lot. It’s cool to see how these watches are tied to his movies and his whole “King of Cool” image. Maybe one day I’ll own one of these, but for now, I’m just admiring them from afar.
