It looks like a perfectly straight second-execution 2448. It has the Deci scale and, sure enough, we have a second-execution 2448 D in our Carrera table (row D-13, to be precise). Everything ties in with that. Except that case reference.

Which brings us on to the second mystery. Heuer did indeed produce a reference 2445. It was indeed gold-plated. And it was a pre-Carrera. Aha, you might think, some Carrera internals have found their way into a pre-Carrera case, QED, case closed.

Except.

Except that doesn't look like a 2445 case. The best way to check for a genuine Carrera or a pre-Carrera masquerading as one (which happens a fair amount, the Carrera name adds to the value) is to check the lugs. Those on a 2444/5 come out straight from the case and the outside edge of the lug is a smooth curve. The Carrera's lugs come out of the case at an angle, pointing towards each other, and the lugs themselves are very angular too, with a telltale groove between them and the main case body. Just like in the pictured watch in fact...

So, as far as I am concerned, that is a 2448 case. How it got a 2445 stamp is a matter of conjecture. The car industry has/had the concept of the Friday afternoon car, put together a bit haphazardly by workers with half an eye already on the weekend (maybe it's the pre-redundancy car instead in the current climate). Perhaps this is a Friday afternoon case! I'd put more weight on that as being the explanation if this was a first-execution watch though, where they went straight from making 2445s to 2448s. There were a good few years between 2445 production ending and second execution 2448s, which makes this harder to fathom.

In summary, then, it looks like a 2448 to me and I don't really know why the case is stamped 2445! Helpful, huh?! :)