Hi all,

First of all I want to convey the best wishes for 2010. Let it be healthy, happy and soundly prosperous.

Finally I received the information I was looking for. Some may remember that I was the one buying the silver+black Austavia dial which was offered on E-bay 3 months ago. Yes, it was a gamble as I did not know whether it was fake or not. It looked genuine even to the smallest detail but, you just never know for sure. I was encouraged after David Devoss sent a photo of a friend's 2446 Autavia with the same dial, however with hands which did not look like Autavia hands at all. I also could not find any photo of such a watch in brochures, OTD photos etc.

I finally contacted TAG Heuer's Mathilde Tournois who is the keeper of the TAG Heuer museum. At first she wrote to me: "I looked for it in the archives before asking Jack Heuer, and unfortunately I didn't find anything.
In the catalog, there is sometimes mention "same as ref ... but with black dial" for Carrera, but never for the Autavia".

Then Mathilde turned to Jack Heuer and he came with the following reaction: "Like Ron Henselmans suspected, this is an abolutely legitimate Heuer Autavia dial from a non automatic Chronograph.
It dates from the years 1964-1968. It was not a special edition and this version was as far as I can remember a standard version together with the more popular version of black dial with white subdials.
We probably supplied it both with the 12 hour and Tachy turning bezel".

Thanking Mathilde Tournois for her splendid support and of course Jack Heuer for helping to add a new member to the OTD-registered Heuer family, I guess it is time to give it a name. The Autavia 2446SN maybe?

Anyhow, there is one problem left, we haven't seen a real watch yet. Only the dial ( see below). So dear experts, what type of hands and subdial-hand do we think belonged to the watch, and, do we think it came with the first execution case ( roundish lugs) or the second execution case( squarish lugs) . Maybe it will be possible eventually to rebuild this type in its 100% original way.Would be silly to post the photo of a dial only on the OTD Gallery, wouldn't it?

All advice and parts-assistance is much appreciated

Cheers
Ron