Ok, so Jeff says this scan day starts tomorrow, but I'm travelling most of the day so it's more convenient for me to be a day early!

I agree with the majority that steel is the "right" material for a tool watch, but I've never dismissed the gold ones - on the right watch, gold or indeed other case materials other than steel can really give a different impression. I'm quite indifferent to the Grand Carreras, right up to the point I see the RS2s in titanium or rose gold like Abel's. I like those two a lot.

And indeed, if you have the right wherewithal and enough sang-froid, you can wear and use a big lump of gold as a tool watch too - check out 70s photos of Niki Lauda wearing his Carrera 1158 as proof!

So, onto my gold Heuers...

Gold can be all bling and in your face. Like this in fact:

But it can also be restrained and classy. Here's my 1158 looking a bit moody:

So there's a wide spectrum of what a gold Heuer is, and these are just a couple of examples of Carreras. It will be interesting to see what other people have in their collections.

Precious metals do seem more frequently used for watch cases than they were in Heuer's heyday. TAG-Heuer has certainly latched onto the trend.

We've seen rose gold:

Yellow gold:

And even one in white gold:

For me, I think the rose gold ones are the most successful. Yes, even the re-issue Autavia :) Saw one in the metal in Dublin when they were first released and it was an attractive watch. Now, if Heuer had done an 1158 in rose gold, I'd be buying them up left, right and centre! I'll have to be satisfied with my yellow gold one instead :)