I’ve come across a lot of watches in the past 5 years and one watch in particular keeps staring back. It may be an unconscious reminder of the California fires raging every year, especially extreme in the summer of 2020. The Heuer Silverstone, released in 1974, comes in 4 flavors.  Some think it’s the ugly sibling to the Heuer Monaco, who touts loudly its history of being the first automatic chronograph and its reference to motorsports finest and elite racing series, but I much prefer the stranger, Heuer Silverstone.

The 1970’s brought significant monumental timepieces into the world and could be the golden era of Gerald Genta, the renowned designer of the royal oak and the nautilus. Back then most of the watch designs were controversial and didn’t garner the anticipated success but 4 decades later, watches from the 1970’s are on many enthusiasts’ must haves. The Heuer Silverstone is an evolution of the Monaco, not just in its model naming to another track but in its square-ish shape and that it also happens to be a chronograph with the destro crown. Owning one, I’m fortunate to be able to enjoy it daily.

Design in the 1970’s brought curves to the angular designs of the late 1960’s and its evident in watch designs as well. The watch has lots of radius and rounding out of corners and edges. The concave bezel is especially unique in a pool of tradition convex bezels. It really sharpens the focus on the dial and also balances out the bullish angled chapter ring. It would be a beast of a watch otherwise. The radius corners on the dial was also known as the television watch, making it more of a kitsch piece.

At the end of the day, it’s a fun piece on the wrist. There’s no seconds subdial to meditate over a sweeping seconds hand. There’s no open exhibition caseback. It’s one big red dial drawing your gaze in to give you an approximation of what time is it. It’s best enjoyed slowly over minutes and hours, reminding us that in times of Covid, we have control over our quality of life and not the other way around where the digital exactness of our iphone dictates our actions and consumes our souls. The world of vintage watches has certainly taking us back to a great appreciation of history but also of a more simpler yet still eccentric life that it once was.