The largest independent, non-commercial, consumer-oriented resource on the Internet for owners, collectors and enthusiasts of fine wristwatches. Online since 1998. | ||||||||
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Vintage Heuer Discussion Forum
The place for discussing 1930-1985 Heuer wristwatches, chronographs and dash-mounted timepieces. Online since May 2003. | |||||||
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Thank you for visiting OTD. Jeff Stein actually called me after your first post in excitement regarding this honor and opportunity. I apologize for the lateness of my reply. Unfortunately, I have been traveling addressing a work crisis and have had no free time until now.
First, I join you in your congratulations of Jeff in what he has accomplished with OTD. Jeff is free in his praise of all the others who have assisted in the development of this fine resource for vintage Heuer owners, particularly Chuck Maddox, Bruce Mackie, Hans Schrag and Derek Ziglar. The information here would be an amazing accumulation for a lifetime, let alone five years.
I co-moderate the Zowie (Omega) Forum, a sister forum to OTD. As you might imagine, my collection is centered on vintage Omegas, and only partially on chronographs. My focus is more on rarely seen and more complicated watches.
But a while back, Jeff parted with this classic Carrera automatic, which is the exemplar photograph for the 1153N on OTD.
My knowledge of vintage Heuer and modern TAG-Heuer is far less than most posters here. My suggestions are coming from a vintage enthusiast and watch enthusiast with an affection, but not strong attachment to the brand, particularly the very successful modern brand.
Your request was:
Now we are ourselves approaching our 150 th anniversary and plan to have a couple of re-editions. If any of you as any suggestions on the Heuer timpieces we could bring back to life for the occasion, I would be only happy and grateful.
May I suggest that at least one timepiece from each 50 year period be included?
1860-1910 --
a pocket watch chronograph and one of the early two register manuals adapted from pocket watch movements. The size would suit current trends.
1911-1960 --
a "flieger" chronograph,
a mareograph,
triple calendar chronographs with and without moonphase, and
other examples of the 1950s chronographs with special purpose dials, such as the Abercrombie & Fitch Auto-graph.
(My interest in complications is showing in this list of suggestions.)
1961-2010 --
definitely a watch with a version of a Heuer 11 or 12 with the crown at 9, as this defined Heuer for many of us. I would prefer a GMT version such as the Autavia 1163 GMT with two tone bezel and two registers. Please don't oversize the watch too much, as the symmetry of the dial is harmed if the registers are too far from the outer edge of the dial.
I would strongly support both an automatic and a manual version of a round cased watch of moderate size (40mm) with the El Primero movement with a display back. It is such a beautiful and unique movement. In fact, I just made a very rare purchase of a new watch of a Zenith ChronoMaster T with the full calendar moonphase version.
What may be obvious is that I am generally interested only in mechanical watches, not quartz. However, I do note a growing interest among collectors in "classic" quartz watches (witness Jeff's "Robo-Chrono". I am unfamilar with Heuer's designs, but it would be ignoring a part of your history to not include a quartz re-edition.
Please accept these humble suggestions.
Sam Hewitt
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