Here is some selected text from an OTD Forum exchange last June regarding the use of the Venus 188 movement in Heuer watches.

1. On 6/27/05 S Craig wrote: HEUER MENS SS WITH VALJOUX 72 Item number: 5006882756 . This ebay seller claimed the watch had a R72 movement but it was really a Venus cal. 188. I have seen some other 188 Heuers with a signed movement and wanted to know if they actually used that movement.

2. On 6/28/05 D Alstott wrote: The movement looks like a Valjoux 7730 or a Venus 188 which look alike to me. See p 238 and 240 in G-R Lang's book on Chronographs.

3. On 6/28/05 S craig wrote: Yes, it could be an R7730, they are hard to tell apart from the V188.

Recently on a trip to Canada I picked up a copy of a British watch magazine I had not seen before titled “QP Devoted to Fine Watches” (http://www.qpmagazine.com).

In this issue, no. 13, there is a 4 page article on Venus watch movements from the 1930s to 1966. In the last paragraph there is some enlightening info regarding the above OTD Forum discussion which follows.

“In 1948 the demand grew for cheaper chronographs and Venus responded with a series of cam switched movements - the 188, the 200, and the 210 - alongside its column-wheel chronographs. But by the sixties the chronograph boom had definitely had its day and Venus closed its doors in 1966. Its assets were absorbed by Valjoux , which discontinued column wheel production and concentrated on the Venus cam switched movement, rebadged as the Valjoux 7730 series. Not always the best survive”.

NOW WE KNOW why the Venus 188 and Valjoux 7730 movements look alike.

David