Congratulations!! Great find; even better story.

Two questions, please.

• Which is rarer -- silver dialed or black dialed?

• What do these generally sell for, in either retail stores that may have some old stock remaining or in the after-market?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: 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!!!