Heuer has a deep history rooted in motorsports racing, despite facing difficulty selling wristwatch chronographs - like this full-serviced early 1970's Heuer Autavia Ref. 1163 "Viceroy" automatic chronograph here - in the early 1970’s.  

There’s no denying vintage Heuer has seen a tremendous increase in popularity, with the reissuance of numerous references from their back catalog - always sans "TAG" nomenclature - to include the Autavia, Monza, Carrera, and Monaco, and infamously (in our opinion), the Formula 1 Kith/Heuer collab.
 
Heuer’s long connection with auto racing can be traced back to at least 1962, when a youthful Jack Heuer arrived in the United States to sell the Swiss company’s bestseller – stopwatches. Motorsports – in particular, Formula 1 – soon came to be sponsored, and then dominated by Heuer timepieces.
 
In the 1970s, after the Quartz Crisis (brought on by Seiko, naturally) began to devastate the Swiss watch industry, Jack Heuer would pursue other avenues to bolster sagging sales of Heuer watches – and from this difficult time came a unique partnership.
 
Viceroy – an American brand of cigarettes, now owned and manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and British American Tobacco outside of the United States – introduced by Brown & Williamson (B&W) as a mid-priced brand in 1936, with the claim to be the world's first cork-tipped filter cigarette.
 
During the same 1970s-era as flagging Heuer sales, B&W realized their Viceroy cigarette brand was mainly smoked by women and couples because the Viceroy brand was, "less masculine than its key competition" and the brand had a "feminine orientation" according to internal documents.  Heuer was struggling to sell watches, Viceroy its cigarettes.
 
Arrive left stage – a savior in the form of Jack Heuer, who proposed a new version of his famed Heuer Autavia as part of a cross-branding cigarette/chronograph promotion.  Heuer produced this special version of the Heuer Ref. 1163, the Calibre 11 1163V, for the team-up - and Viceroy offered the watch for $88 when combined with a single box top from a Viceroy Cigarette carton.  Both then approached the famous Parnelli Jones Racing team with a proposal to promote the sportsman’s cigarette and Autavia chronograph, respectively.
 
And B&W, Viceroy’s parent company, went one step further, something Heuer would later repeat over (and over again, to witness the company’s 2024 decision to do so) – namely, to sponsor Jones’ Racing team in autosport championships such as the United States Auto Club and Formula 1 to give the brand a more "masculine" attitude, similar to Marlboro.
 
B&W / Viceroy would sponsor Jones’ Formula 1 racing team during the 1974 and 1975 season.  The joint promotion was great branding (and financial) success for Heuer and laid the foundation for a subsequent successful rise.  Viceroy cigarettes are still sold widely throughout Europe and the Americas.

The name Autavia, first used on Heuer dashboard racing timers in the 1930s, came from a combo of two words - Automotive & Aviation.  The 1163 was launched in 1969 and has the 1163 reference number engraved between the lugs.  Most of the 1163 range was on sale from 1969-1972 - while the 1163 was only on sale for a few years, the case design served as the template for Autavias that followed.

This Heuer Viceroy comes on a leather-backed canvas strap, and with nylon strap, vintage stainless-steel bracelet, rugged travel case, spring bar tool, and a reproduction Heuer Autavia-correct box.