I am a huge fan of the vintage Heuer collection, the chronographs from the 1960s and 1970s are of particular interest to me. During the 1970s Heuer was releasing new chronographs every couple of years with the Daytona radically different in design to the Carrera.

The Daytona chronograph best known as the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the only chronograph in the Rolex collection. How Heuer came up with the Daytona name is their motorsport pedigree, the Daytona racetrack at Daytona Beach, Florida. The Daytona name was to appeal to US markets as Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500 race.

The movement is the in-house Calibre 12 based on the Calibre 11 architecture of the Monaco, Carrera and Autavia of the late 1960s. The left-hand crown with two chronograph pushers is a distinctive feature of the Daytona along with the two horizontal sub-dials. The 39 mm brushed stainless steel case has no lugs with an integrated bracelet. I really like the rounded edges of the Daytona, the bevels on the three link bracelet suit the rounded case.

The date window at the 6 o’clock position really balances the dial, the two sub-dial arrangement at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock is nicely balanced. The angled chapter ring with tachygraph keeps the design compact allowing the rounded case design, this is what makes the Daytona one of the best designs of the era. The plexiglass crystal was flush with the case, so this was a reasonably compact design that I would like to see revived at some point.