McQueen went off to make the film, leaving his financial advisor to sort out the mess. When he returned, he presented the advisor with the Monaco in appreciation of the fact that he had successfully restructured both his personal and company finances.

Octane’s feature about the Heuer Monaco’s inextricable link with Hollywood legend Steve McQueen (issue 72) had barely gone to press when Antiquorum’s US specialist Charles Tearle called to tell us that he had tracked down a hitherto unknown third Monaco that McQueen is believed to have worn during the making of Le Mans.

‘McQueen’s company, Solar Productions, was in severe financial difficulty before and during the making of Le Mans,’ explains Tearle. ‘He went off to make the film, leaving his financial advisor to sort out the mess. When McQueen returned, he presented the advisor with the Monaco in appreciation of the fact that he had successfully restructured both his personal and company finances. The watch has remained in the same family ownership to this day.’

Antiquorum will now offer the watch with an extremely conservative estimate of just ,000-20,000. Our guess is that the final selling price will be somewhere near the low end – with the addition of an extra zero.

Coincidentally, Tearle has also managed to track down another McQueen watch, this time one of the Rolex Submariner ref 5512s that he is known to have favoured for ‘everyday’ wear.

A few months before his death in 1980, McQueen gave the stainless steel Sub to his great friend and fellow petrolhead Jimmy Brucker, who subsequently inherited the star’s aircraft hangar at Santa Paula airport where he stored his ’planes, motorcycles and a large collection of automobilia. Again, the estimate for the watch is a highly cautious ,000-20,000.

And, in what must surely be a first for a watch auction, Antiquorum has also consigned McQueen’s 1929 Scott Super Squirrel motorcycle. It is being offered complete with custom paintwork by pinstriping legend Kenny ‘Von Dutch’ Howard. As well as having the artist’s ‘flying eyeball’ logo on the toolbox, the bike’s Scott badges are hand painted and detailed in gold leaf. Von Dutch also applied the Scott’s date of manufacture to the front number plate holder – except he got it wrong and mistakenly painted ‘Scott 1926’.

The 596cc two-stroke is being sold by Tonny Sorensen, owner of the Von Dutch clothing company, and is estimated to fetch ,000-120,000. More information at www.antiquorum.com.