If you plan on being fabulously cool, here is something you cannot wear to tell time: Steve McQueen’s 1970 Heuer Monaco.

Pictured here is the very watch McQueen owned, shown in Budapest at a roving exhibition by Tag Heuer, who are celebrating their 150th birthday this year. It’s a very handsome watch. I suppose it wasn’t running. The hands are just a bit too perfect in their arrangement. Besides, it was a few minutes before 6 PM, and a T. H. has got to be more punctual than that.

Milking their long-time association with motorsport for all it’s worth, Tag Heuer also had other watches worn by famous motorsport people on display at their tiny Budapest showroom. Did you know, for instance, that Ayrton Senna had a tan-and-gold Tag Heuer, a perfect match with his shoes in the famous flogging-an-NSX-around-Suzuka-in-white-socks video? I did not! It was placed in a very dark corner next to a watch owned by President Obama in 1990.

Further milking their long-time association with motorsport for all it’s worth, they had a glamour model drive up a Tesla Roadster to the showroom in freezing rain and rush-hour traffic. Her name was Kata and she was very nice and rather tall. The car was left on the sidewalk in the care of rent-a-cops and real cops.

The headlights then fogged up in the cold and humid weather. No word on short circuits. An electric car in the rain. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? At this point, intern Máté and I left the premises, debating the merits of the McLaren F1 versus the Ferrari F40.

P.S.: For a fabulous collection of Steve McQueen photos, visit The Selvedge Yard.

Photo Credit: Máté Petrány (watch closeup) amd the author. Special thanks to our friend Dóra Dénes for posing with The Watch.