To be honest, I knew very little about Jack before I read this since my interest in the brand really starts in 1985 when the company was bought by Techniques d'Avant Garde. Obviously Jack has been involved with the company since and there have been several special editions created to honour his birthdays etc... but even so, I'll be the first to admit my pre-1985 knowledge is (or perhaps was) rather limited.
So it was interesting to pick this up, and I have to say 'Mr Jack' has a great writing style which is easy to read and get invested in. He has also paced the book well; there's nothing more tedious than an autobiography which spends waaaay too long on the author's childhood but Jack gives us the salient details without droning on and I never once wanted to skip a bit to get to the good stuff.
Jack has certainly had an interesting life, from his skiing exploits, to flying on private jets with JFK's mother Ethel, to taking over the company at quite a young age (when Uncle Hubert wanted to sell out to Bulova) and then on through the trials and tribulations of running the company through the 60s and 70s until the quartz crisis and his departure from the firm in the early years of the 1980s.
Along the way Jack discusses the origins of such important pieces as the Monaco, Carrera and Autavia, the takeover of Heuer by TAG and later the sale to LVMH (which led to him being invited to become 'honorary chairman' of the company and also the re-release of the Autavia in 2003). Interestingly along the way he also busts the often repeated 'myth' that the crown of the Calibre 11 was placed on the left of the case as an aide-memoire to the user that the watch didn't need winding every day... it turns out it was simply a piece of marketing 'spin' to explain the weird looking design which was done for ease of construction.
Also, Mr Jack reveals that Steve McQueen chose to go with the Heuer Monaco in the Le Mans film primarily because he liked Jo Siffert's white overalls, and (amusingly) because he was worried that Omega would exploit his fame - if only he knew!
This was a fantastic book which I'm sure I will read again. I couldn't bear read it on a PDF though so I printed it out on A4 paper, which while somewhat bulky was still preferable to spending £300+ to get a copy!
Thanks must go to Calibre 11 and TAG Heuer for making this available for free.
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