The story of the model begins in 1967 with the American skipper Emil Mosbacher winning the 20th America’s Cup on “The Intrepid” with Heuer chronographs on board. To celebrate this victory, Jack Heuer commissioned the Heuer Carrera Skipper 7754.

Nicknamed “Skipperera” because it combines SKIPPER and ERA from the end of the word Carrera it is the only Skipper model that appears in the original 35 mm vintage Carrera case. The most striking design elements of ref. 7754 are the colours, taken from the vivid colours of The Intrepid: a metallic blue dial, mint green subsidiary seconds and the distinctive tri-colour mint green, green and orange 15 minutes count-down register, ensuring optimal legibility and precision necessary for a regatta timer. It mirrors the start of a regatta, when four shots are fired at fifteen minutes intervals. The first three shots are warnings, representing respectively 15, 10 and 5 minutes to the start, the final one indicates the beginning of the race. When the chronograph is activated at the first shot, this subsidiary dial indicates to the crew the exact time left before the beginning of the race. The hand advances with 30 seconds increments, for a more accurate reading.

An important factor for the success of a regatta is the timing and position in relation to competitors when crossing the starting line. To count down the start of a race a series of horns and colourful flags is used in five-minute intervals. The skipper needs a tactical plan and reliable timing instruments to reach the starting line at the precise moment when the horn sounds to start the race. Boats crossing the line too early will be penalised, those crossing it too late begin with a disadvantage.

The case used on these models are actually the same 7753 engraved case as used in the standard Carrera two register models that ran concurrently but the documented reference is 7754 as 54 was the two number code for all Skipper references. The metallic dial on this reference is very prone to decay, and due to the environment this watch was often used in (salt water and moisture in general is not ideal for metallic dials from this period) the dial often has some missing paint. Rather like the PVD Dark Lord Monaco we tend to see degraded dials or mint ones which were often more latterly built from left over parts. The serial numbers for this reference are all found within the 105-109xxx range and originally born examples tend to be in two distinct batches. Note that although the pictures below show the Skipper 7754 with a white chrono hand it is more usually orange.

The 7754 Skipper remains one of the top 10 vintage Heuer grails and values range between £15000 for a poor example with badly degraded dial and as much as £60000+ for an exceptional example.

The watch is still very relevant today as the 7754 served as inspiration for the limited edition 2017 TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper, co-designed by HODINKEE and TAG Heuer to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emil Mosbacher’s victory at America’s Cup. The modern Skipper was produced as a limited edition of 125 units in comparison the original vintage Heuer 7754 Skipper which had an estimated  production of circa 300 units of which around 35 original examples have so far been found and documented.

To read more about the vintage Heuer Skipper chronograph click on the link below to preview the Heuer Carrera 1963-85 book, which is filled with beautiful photographs and important collector info.

Note: Please do not reproduce these images without permission.