Unlike today, during the 1960s through the 1970s Heuer used to specialize in far more than watches to include stopwatches for yachting, science and research, automotive, aircraft, and multiple sports, like the example here - a new-old stock (NOS) early 1980s Heuer Trackmaster Ref. 652.307 multi-sports stopwatch, with its NOS original Heuer box and lanyard.
Heuer stopwatches were designed to measure everything from 1/5th a second to 1/100th of a second, and a multitude of different things - like the example here - which measures times for water polo, American football, soccer, ice hockey, backetball, handball, rugby, and...Australian football. The Ref. 652.307 example here was a successor to the Heuer Ref. 502.907, which featured a matte black resin case.
Per Heuer literature of the era, their multi-sport stopwatches - like the one here - were typically used by referees and have a 1/5 second recorder, with central 0 - 60 minute register with special markings, and two crown functions with time-out and locked return.
So-called "all-sports" stopwatches were hardly unique to Heuer - a range of watch companies, from the well-known Gallet (covered by Fratello in mid-2024) to much lesser known Lowe & Campbell (like the one we sold recently, here), made then from at least the 1920s onwards.
In the late 1960’s, Heuer decided to add a set of economical stopwatches, built on pinlever movements, to its rather large catalog. The popular Heuer Trackmaster stopwatches - like the one in the shop, here - were a commercial success (with nearly 200,000 sold in 1970 alone).
Based on the sucess of the Trackmaster, Heuer decided to design and produce a mid-range stopwatch offering between the budget Heuer Trackmaster and the Heuer Professional series, with the mid-range offering utilizing a more accurate seven-jewel mechnical movement.
The Heuer Trackstar was thus born (which the Trackstar example here counts itself), and the series covers a large range of purposes from general to the very specific (like sky-diving or kayacking.
Some Heuer stopwatches were even issued to the USG's Office of Civilian Defense, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as we wrote about in "Real Life FALLOUT! - The U.S. Office of Civil Defense, America's Last Defense Against Nuclear War and Heuer Stopwatches."
Within North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states – to include the U.S. – starting in the 1950s, Civilian Defense organizations (all of which used the same triangle “CD” logo, with some European countries continuing to use it to this day) were tasked with preparing for the aftermath of a nuclear war between NATO and the Soviet Union, which seemed likely during the Cold War.
This NOS Heuer stopwatch comes with a rugged travel case, NOS Heuer-signed lanyard, and its original box.
New-Old Stock Early 1980s Heuer Trackstar "All-Sports" Ref. 652.307 Stopwatch
DIAL: NOS condition Heuer-signed white dial, with highly visible green sections and correct handset.
CASE: Stainless-steel 54mm x 69.5mm (to include center stopwatch pusher) case; caseback retains its original NOS Heuer sticker, replete with crisply legible writing. Case is in NOS condition.
CRYSTAL: No scratches, blemishes, or cracks.
MOVEMENT: "Shockprotected" seven jewel Heuer Calibre 412 manual-wound mechanical movement. Events measured were timed up to 60 minutes. Operations are via a central crown, with start, stop, and return to zero by successive depressions of the two crowns, lending to simple time measurements, for example the duration of sport in question to be timed.
CROWN: Unsigned crown; minute and second hand reset pusher.
This Heuer Ref. 652 all-sports stopwatch comes with its original NOS TAG Heuer box and Heuer-signed lanyard. The TAG Heuer box indicates this stopwatch as an early/mid-1980s manufacture, when the company was mixing Heuer timepieces with TAG Heuer boxes.