Original vintage 1970s print advertisement for "the wrist-computer" white-dialed 1970s Heuer Autavia "Jo Siffert" automatic chronograph.
 
Dimensions: Roughly six inches wide by 8.75 inches high.
 
Joseph Siffert (7 July 1936 – 24 October 1971) was a Swiss racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1962 to 1971.  Siffert won two Formula One Grands Prix across 10 seasons.  Affectionately known as "Seppi" to his family and friends, Siffert was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, the son of a dairy owner.  He initially made his name in racing on two wheels, winning the Swiss 350 cc motorcycle championship in 1959, before switching to four wheels with a Formula Junior Stanguellini.
 
Siffert graduated to Formula One as a privateer in 1962, with a four-cylinder Lotus-Climax.  He later moved to Swiss team Scuderia Filipinetti, and in 1964 joined Rob Walker's private British Rob Walker Racing Team.  Early successes included victories in the 1964 and 1965 Mediterranean Grands Prix non-Championship Formula One races, both times beating Jim Clark by a very narrow margin.  He won two World Championship races, one for the Rob Walker Racing Team and one for BRM.
 
As the story goes, Siffert would persuade his fellow drivers to buy Heuer watches even while on the grid, waiting for the race to start.  He had wound his way across racing in the hardscrabble way many of us might be familiar with: he took odd jobs, fixed his own cars and motorcycles, lived on the road and slept under the stars.  "They spent the nights in the cheapest hotels, very often in a farmhouse," says one account.  "Instead of having regular meals, Siffert and his small team tried to deaden their hunger by smoking some cigarettes."
 
Siffert was so good at pushing Heuers (as well as the occasional Porsche) that by the start of the 1970s, almost everyone involved in F1 ended up with a Heuer of some sort.  Jack Heuer, understandably, was delighted.  "Jo, as you may know from his background, was a very poor guy and he was a born 'wheeler and dealer,'" said Heuer.  "And he would always have a collection of watches, and he would place them with all of his friends on the circuit, and we didn't mind of course because it was in public.  And so if you looked around the Formula One circuit, they all wore a Heuer chronograph!"
 
The name Autavia, first used on Heuer dashboard racing timers in the 1930s, came from a combo of two words - Automotive & Aviation.  The Autavia was launched in 1969 and has the 1163 reference number engraved between the lugs, with most on sale from 1969-1972.  Although the 1163 was only on sale for a few years, the case design served as the template for Autavias that followed.
 
Siffert was killed in the non-championship 1971 World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch, Kent, England, the scene of his first victory in 1968.  His car rolled over after a crash caused by a mechanical failure and he was caught under the burning vehicle, and could not free himself from the burning car.
 
In the subsequent Royal Automobile Club (the UK organizing and regulatory representative of the FIA at the time) investigation, it was discovered that Siffert had only suffered a leg fracture in the initial crash but because three fire extinguishers failed to work properly no rescuers could reach Siffert for five minutes and he died of smoke inhalation. A fire marshal stated that if the fire extinguishers worked correctly then they could have reached Siffert within 20 seconds.
 
This accident led to a rapid overhaul of safety, both in-car and on circuit. On-board fire extinguishers (using BCF—bromochlorodifluoromethane, an aircraft product) became mandatory and also piped air for the drivers, direct into their helmets.
 
Siffert’s funeral in Switzerland was attended by 50,000 people and a Gulf-Porsche 917 of Team John Wyer led the hearse and procession through the streets of Fribourg.