I think your answer...or better your question in the end is worth posing.

I have my personal thought about this, let me explain. So you were saying "...but then why do we have a gold bridge that has been through the process?" An explaination could be that Heuer had such a big number of ready stamped "11" bridges that they still had huge stock of those when they started to produce the improved caliber 12. Heuer was still a very healthy company and wouldn't bother about the overstock of those caliber 11 bridges. So, first they produced the silver caliber 12 and afterwards the "gold" caliber 12 takes place....As stocks were running out and Heuer preferred to re-use its dead stock from caliber 11 bridges (which they still had plenty). They simply had to "erase" the 11 and afterwards stamp the 12 in the pit, ofcourse the "gold" finishing was also done.

I think this is a very possible and logic explaination. In my humble experience over the last couple of years I only saw these caliber 12 with the 12 in the little blanking pit in the later Autavia models, such as the 11630MH, 11630T and the 11063-series. Also the Diver 100 were mostly equipped with these. So I think at the end of Heuer, before it became TAG Heuer...they used as much as old stock they could...this means also re-using the stock of the caliber 11 bridges...after they were modified in house.

Please note, these are only my personal thoughts and I don't claim them to be true...I just think this is the way it could have happened.

Other thoughts??

What a great forum this is!!

Cheers,
Abel.

: I think that's the first time I've seen a gold Calibre 12
: with the 12 in the little blanking pit - it's almost always the
: case the case that it's on the silver coloured bridges used in
: the earliest Cal 12s.

: My assumption was that the bridges had originally been stamped with
: an 11, but that was blanked and 12 stamped in the resultant pit.
: I still think that was what happened, but then why do we have a
: gold bridge that has been through the process?

: Were they thinking of adopting the gold bridge for the late Cal
: 11s, or as a way of distinguishing 11i from earlier 11? Were
: some of the Cal 12 bridges initially stamped 11 by mistake?

: Jeff, this probably has some implications for your intended page,
: it may need some further digging...