WristScan

…but arguably the best thing about him was his other half (well, for five years or so, anyway).

The guy had ‘an eye for horseflesh’, as they say in Kentucky.  And for sheetmetal:

That doesn’t include the cars that he drove in movies – and yes, wouldn’t it be wonderful to own or to drive the pony he drove in “Bullitt”?

Which brings us to the second part of your question. Favourite McQueen movie moments?  Easy. The “Bullitt” chase[s] and - 

Certainly, McQueen’s name then and now obviously carries great marketing ‘clout’.  In fact, a couple of years ago in Berlin a very cunning Teutonic spectacles salesman with a very apt name (it could have been Og, or Salman, or something…) zeroed in on an ageing, flabby, optically-challenged Antipodean Purist who had merely ducked into the store to avoid the Absolute-Kelvin-like winds which were raking the Hauptbahnstraße. Who else but an Antipodean would be pawing sunglasses when everyone else in the store was looking for gold-backed visors to prevent snow-blindness?  Salman (let’s call him Salman, shall we?...) recognised a mark when he saw one, and he was not going to let his precious few Euros in commission walk out the door back into the frozen wasteland unless toting a carry-bag with the spectacle store’s lurid logo screaming from its tasteless flanks.

“Guten Tag, bonjour, hello, g’day”, began Salman, covering his options in order not to alienate his quarry. The rolled eyes but polite attention he received in return told him instantly that he had either an Englishman or an Australian on the hook – an American would have ignored him, a Frenchman would have glowered at him and an Italian would have laughed at him: not that this victim was anywhere near sufficiently well-dressed to be Italian. This was going to be like taking bratwurst from a baby!

“It iss obvious that Sir hass a gut eye for quality – gut eye, get it, ja?!? (…for this is what passes as humour in Berlin). “Vell, do vee haf someting for you!”

With that, Salman (for we decided to call him Salman, did we not?...) made a great show of unlocking a brightly lit, heavily mirrored display case and removing from within it the only pair of  frames it held – never a good sign -  presenting them for inspection with both hands like some sort of precious offering to a lesser god, an impression completed by the slight, stiff bow which Salman made at the same moment. 

“Zese are not for ze common man of ze people”, said Salman (momentarily forgetting his jingoistic pride in all things Volkswagen): “Zese frames...” (he all but spat), “…zese frames are a very spezial, very limited re-edition of ze Very. Zame. Zunglasses. zat Persol made to ze spezial spezification of Herr Steve McQueen – ze King of Cool, ja?”

“Oh yeah, sure they are!” thought his victim, but even the King of Cool would have surrendered to the patter rather than go back out into that wind and become the King of Frozen Solid. Let’s face it: would Steve McQueen have specified anything to anyone, given the vast resources of studio wardrobe departments at his disposal? Even if he did, was he likely to have specified a tortoiseshell frame with blue lenses? Blue? Really? Isn’t there some kind of fashion law which prohibits two such dissonant tones being in the same room at the same time, let alone melded together?

Well, against all expectation, it turns out Salman was (for perhaps the first and only time in his life) telling the truth. Persol model 3019S was in fact made up for Steve McQueen in around 1968 and, what’s more, you have probably seen him wearing those sunglasses on screen.

Sadly, although unbeknown to Salman at the time, the weary traveller was not swayed in the least by the somewhat tenuous McQueen connection: he could not, however, hear the words ‘Limited Edition’ without making a lightning-fast Pavlovian grab for his wallet, such was his native Purist instinct.  Quicker than you can say ‘The Thomas Mao Affair” Salman was clutching a wad (and it was a wad!) of crumpled Euro notes thrust onto his still-outstretched palms where, seconds earlier, there had rested a pair of sunglasses. He watched incredulously as an ageing, flabby, optically-challenged Antipodean Purist burst free from his store and into the raw elements, eyes shielded from the freezing wind and the blinding glare by a fine new pair of Limited Edition Steve McQueen Vintage Re-edition sunglasses, swing tags still streaming from the arms.

“Verdammt!” exclaimed Salman (for that will be his name to us always…) “I vorgot to give him ze bag!”

Oh, you had a question, didn’t you? What watch in your collection would Steve McQueen have worn, you ask?

Well, clearly money was not the issue: the ‘poor boy made good’ probably had a few bucks by the time he was taken to the great race track in the sky.

We’ve seen his taste in women, in clothes, in cars: it has to be something über-cool, rugged, individualistic, not available in the mainstream, highly desirable, almost visceral…

Aha! 

Of course! 

What else…?!?

(If he hadn’t died 35 years ago) McQueen would certainly have worn a Haigh and Hastings, Australia’s own legend*:

Thanks for an informative thread, Art, and “G’day” Salman, wherever you may be…

Cheers,

pplater.

*(Well, a few more posts like this and it will be!    

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