Very, very sad news. And so young, too. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

: Today, we received the sad news that Gianvittorio Molteni has
: passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. As I understand it, he
: had not been ill.

: Amazingly, his last posting on the International Vintage Heuer
: Owners Club, a few days ago, was about his pride that the new
: book "Time to Race", included three of GVM's watches.
: Here is what he posted -- "John Goldberger's beautiful book
: is for sale, there are several watches from my collection
: inside, but I'm especially proud of these three." The three
: watches are the "Rindt" Autavia, the
: "Siffert" Autavia and an Autavia (Reference 2446C)
: presented to Rid Cooper to mark a rally victory. Below, I am
: including the photos that Gianvittorio included in this last
: IVHOC posting, and I am also including two photos of GVM.

: On his Instagram account (BoldWatches), you can see that he posted
: as late as yesterday -- https://www.instagram.com/boldwatches/
: . Gianvittorio posted the photo at Monza (shown below) on
: Instagram last month.

: Gianvittorio was a huge contributor in the early days of our
: vintage Heuer community, and his discoveries of the racers
: wearing their chronographs were fantastic. He dug and dug
: through books and magazines, to find so many of the photos that
: have become our favorites. Gianvittorio had incredible passion
: for the watches, the racers, music, cars and motorcycles, and
: his MoMo brand coffee, as well as design and style, more
: generally. I believe that among the chronographs, the Heuers
: were his first love, but Gianvittorio was also passionate about
: the Enicar chronographs and other watches worn by the racers,
: including the Breitling Navitimer. Along with Jochen Rindt, Jim
: Clark was definitely a favorite driver. Lotus was the preferred
: car, both the ones from the 1960s and today's.

: Of course, Gianvittorio always pointed out that the true
: "Rindt" Autavia had the "Minutes" bezel,
: rather than the "Hours" or the "Tachymeter".
: Fueled by this passion for the watches, he had little tolerance
: for the speculators and investors, or others who bought and sold
: watches. For GVM, it was about owning and enjoying the watches
: and their heritage, rather than the money. He was a unique
: personality, who did things his own way, and all of us benefited
: from the images and information that he shared with the
: community.

: Of course, his friends should feel free to post photos or tributes,
: in the language of their own choosing.

: RIP GVM . . . you will be missed by the community of vintage watch
: enthusiasts.

: Jeff

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