Garner - who became not only an avid racecar driver but also, in the late 1960s, the owner of the American International Racers, which raced cars at Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona - loved his Carrera according to his daughter because “it was a racing watch, and we would go to the races every weekend he was available. Now that timepiece is coming to gavel on June 11-12 at Phillips auction house in New York, offered up for sale by the late actor’s daughter Gigi Garner, with a portion of proceeds going to benefit the James Garner Animal Rescue Fund. Many stills from the show clearly show him sporting the watch. Garner wore the watch for years afterward as an everyday timepiece, including on the golf course (one of his favorite haunts), as well as on The Rockford Files. First released in 1963 as a tribute to the Carrera Pan Americana road rally (and originally priced at $89.50), the Heuer chrono would go on to become a “legendary chronograph,” as watch website Hodinkee puts it, adding that “1960s Carreras are arguably some of the sleekest and most beautiful chronographs ever made.” (Heuer became TAG Heuer in the 1980s and currently boasts Ryan Gosling as a brand ambassador.) Sometime around the release of Grand Prix, Garner - who’d previously gotten his big break starring on five seasons of Maverick and would later lead The Rockford Files - acquired a two-register Heuer Carrera wristwatch with a 45-minute counter at 3 o’clock. GRAND PRIX, James Garner, 1966 Courtesy Everett Collection
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