Well, still shell shocked I'll respond.

Dial talk seems ridiculous when we grieve for one who added so much.

But although we never met I'm sure Chuck would like debates bubbling along, in this way.

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I'm certain they are genuine, and I'm talking about the correct ones, not the refinished ones which do exist.....

The late 70's were lean times for Heuer....and indeed the entire Swiss industry.

Now, I'm a product manager and in lean times you extract some extra margin from cutting corners via re-engineering your product, i.e. by reformulating your product.

So (and note, no proof here but hypothesis) - if as a component of total product cost the pristine dial was x-y% of the product cost, and as Heuer you could increase your margin through lowering the cost of a part, e.g.a dial, for a watch at the end of it's product lifecycle, and in the face of a crisis bought on by Quartz.....well, you decide on the likely direction Heuer took.

Rolex dials for the Submariner vary greatly from the 50's to today, e.g. the R O L E X font, serifs, spacing etc etc varies; and the CROWN device itself varies greatly as represented on dials......to my mind, this nice old Heuer is the same; changed fonts, changed production processes- especially when all else- movement, case, glass, crowns, pushers, etc etc are the same.

Yes, there are some refinished dials, and yes, IMHO there are some Mk II or MkIII or Mk "whatever" dials for the last of series, last of the Monacos, the ref 73633.

Love the debate, thanks to everyone for the contributions.

Ciao!

SCK.