Two Upcoming Auctions Showcase Steve McQueen's Legacy

Over the course of his onscreen career, Steve McQueen combined a stoic demeanor, an iconic sense of style and a willingness to go to unexpected places — including forays into competitive auto racing. That career came to a premature end with McQueen’s 1980 death, and it’s a shame that audiences never got to see McQueen take on a late-career series of roles in the vein of fellow actor/auto enthusiast Paul Newman.

McQueen’s legacy remains very tangible if you know where to look, though. Most recently, Damian Lewis memorably played McQueen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And in the coming months, a pair of auctions are set to showcase two different aspects of McQueen’s aesthetic.

Sotheby’s Important Watches auction, set for Dec. 11, will feature the Heuer Monaco that McQueen wore on screen in the film Le Mans. The watch is one of four Heuer Monaco watches with leather bands that were used during filming, two of which are now in the manufacturer’s permanent collection. It’ll be sold as part of a larger spotlight on Heuer’s connections to auto racing, and is estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

“The connection between cars and watches is well-known, but the reference 1133B encapsulates this union in a way unmatched by other timepieces,” said Sotheby’s global head of watches Geoff Hess in a statement. “For enthusiasts of racing, McQueen or vintage chronographs, this watch represents the ultimate addition to any collection — a true ‘end game’ piece.”

One month after buyers will have a chance to buy McQueen’s onetime watch, they’ll also have a chance to buy a vintage car with a deep McQueen connection as well. As Autoblog’s Jonathon Ramsey reports, Mecum’s Kissimmee 2025 auction — which kicks off on Jan. 7 — will include the 1970 Porsche 917K that McQueen’s production company purchased for Le Mans.

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The Porsche has an interesting history over and above McQueen’s ties to it. Another screen presence with a fondness for cars, Jerry Seinfeld, bought the Porsche in 2001. As Jon Burgess noted at Hagerty in 2022, several vehicles associated with McQueen have sold for over a million dollars at auction in recent years, including the 1968 Mustang used in Bullitt, which commanded a price of $3.74 million in 2020. Will McQueen’s Le Mans ride bring in a similar amount? That auction is only a few months away.