This is an original 1960s-era timekeeper’s clipboard for monitoring both individual lap times and total number of laps completed. There’s a small lever on the righthand side that can be used to start and stop all three stopwatches simultaneously, as well as a lap counter.
In the era well before automated digital timekeeping devices like this were absolutely essential, and were used during qualifying, at races, and during car development sessions to track improvements.
Here you can see the lever that operates all three stopwatches simultaneously, as well as the small lap counter on the upper righthand side of the clipboard.
The clipboard has a perspex back and a chromed steel clip that holds the lap time sheets, which the operator would fill in for each lap completed for later analysis. It’s also now accompanied by a set of laminated instructions to help new users get the hang of it.
Heuer stopwatches have been in production for well over 100 years, one of the first was a stopwatch designed for doctors which allowed them to calculate a patients heart rate in beats per minute after 20 seconds of monitoring.
The Heuer Dashboard Autavia would debut in 1933, its name is a portmanteau of “Automobile” and “Aviation” as it was designed as a dashboard timer that could be used in race cars or in aircraft.
Lap timing became increasingly important as motorsport developed over the course of the 20th century, Heuer was front and center developing stopwatches that were used everywhere from the Indianapolis 500 to Formula 1.
Over the years Heuer (now TAG Heuer) has developed and sold a slew of stopwatches and chronographs specifically for sports timing applications. Image courtesy of TAG Heuer.
The Timekeepers Clipboard you see here is in full working condition and it’s being offered for sale by Bonhams at their Goodwood Festival of Speed sale due to be held on the 14th of July. The price guide is £800 – £1,200 which works out to approximately $1,010 – $1,510 USD.
If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here. It comes with the aforementioned laminated inscriptions and a sheaf of spare lap time sheets.
Images courtesy of Bonhams + TAG Heuer.
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