Affordable Vintage: The Bullitt Benrus

Hitting the auction block this weekend is Steve McQueen’s 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4. With estimates ranging from $8-12 million, the car is on track to break sales records and demonstrates that the King of Cool’s legacy is still very much alive. More than thirty years after his death, everything the man touched remains Cool with a capital C. That’s certainly the case with watches, where the models that McQueen wore command a premium in the market. For most buyers, that means a McQueen watch–a blue-dial Heuer Monaco 1133B, a Rolex Submariner 5512, or a Hanhart 417–is in grail territory. However, there is a far less well known and far more attainable McQueen watch, and that’s what we’re looking at today: the Benrus Series #3061 black dial. It’s what we like to call the Bullitt Benrus.

When McQueen took delivery of his Ferrari 275 in 1967, he was in the middle of filming what would become arguably his most famous film: Bullitt. The movie follows San Francisco cop Frank Bullitt (McQueen) as he navigates his way through a tricky situation involving politicians, mob informants, and the mob itself (and, most famously, navigates his dark green Ford Mustang GT fastback quickly and screeching through the San Francisco streets in one of the greatest movie car chases ever made). And on his wrist is this little civilian mil-watch.