There has been a long debate about the authenticity of the blue-dial-with-blue-register ("blueberry") Monacos. Now, we have TAG Heuer including one of these watches in the Hodinkee posting and also in the Monaco book, that TAG Heuer published earlier in 2019. This watch is the top one, shown below [with the little, short hands].

My own view is that this particular watch did not leave the Heuer factory looking like this. Some have suggested that the whole load of blueberry dials are fakes; others look at the specific watch under discussion. On this particular watch, I look at those tiny, short hands and cannot believe that it left the Heuer factory looking like this. Service dial? Service hands? Some other explanation . . . but that's my own opinion. We simply don't see any Monacos of such poor quality finishing, even when Heuer-Leonidas was in hard times.

On page 54 of his book covering the Heuer Monacos, Rich Crosthwaite states -- "Note there is no genuine blue dial with blue sub register variant, rather these dials were later non-original replacements. All non-original dials lack the special detailing all original dials have."

I will note, however, that Nic Green has posted one of these on his Instagram feed [also shown below], and believes that they are authentic. Nic states, "this was always thought of as a fake.....but Singer made these dials for Heuer and others in the late 70's with no markers and tritium lume". Here is Nic's posting -- https://www.instagram.com/p/BH0Ck0iAsx7/

Another question -- Ask yourself if you know any knowledgeable vintage Heuer collectors who have these watches in their collections? Perhaps this explains why we see these watches sell well below the prices for the authentic Monaco.

Jeff

: Hi,

: a presentation of the 02 Monaco a vintage fan can be interested in.
: TAG Heuer at Hodinkee

: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/fifty-years-of-monaco

: cheers
: Mich