I'll try to keep this brief!!

After falling in love with the design of the Heuer Carrera I decided to get myself one. After a few exchanges with Chuck (see "Re-issue Carreras" thread, posted 11 Feb) decided that the silver dialled Lemania c. 1873 was the one for me.

Great!

Apart from the fact that it had been discontinued, and all of the second hand ones I could find were either black dialled or without papers etc etc.

Numerous e-mails and telephone calls to the various web sites in the states still advertising the Lemania model also turned up nothing.

Looked like I was in for a long and frustrating search for "the right one".

However, as it was Valentine's Day at the weekend (and, truth be told, because my other half was there anyway on business) we decided to spend the weekend in Paris.

Passing a large department store I decided to treat myself to a new tie - upon entering the store I couldn't help but notice that there was a fairly small TAG Heuer stand right in front of us. As my other half has (after four years of my company) more than a passing interest in watches I decided to show her the Carrera Auto (despite having promised myself that I would forget all about the watch for the weekend), so that she could at least see the sort of watch I was after.

As I approached the cabinet I was pointing at the white faced Carrera on the shelf when I noticed that it seemed a little smaller than the black faced one on the next shelf down. Then I noticed that it was missing the date. I really had to pinch myself, but there it was - a brand new Carrera Lemania.

Although the sales assistant didn't speak any English and clearly thought I didn't know what I was doing (lots of references to Plexiglass accompanied by scuffing actions over the face and lots of watch winding actions etc) after 20 minutes of sweaty-palmed anticipation I walked out of the store with what must be one of the very last silver dialled Lemania Carreras in Europe (if not the World) on my wrist!!

If anybody knows a way of verifying how many of these are still out there unsold I would be extremely grateful!

Thanks for your help and interest Chuck and for running an extremely cool website!

As a matter of interest I never did get that tie!!!