After having email contact with a Heuer Monaco owner from the U.S. i have volunteered to tell the story of his watch and present his photo's as i think this will interest forum readers. I have received his permission to use his photo's and retell his tale.
Its another paintless Transitional model Monaco (it is wearing production hands) owned by the current owner since 1978, at which stage its dial was the correct metallic blue.
At this stage i think i'll just list let a copy of the owners email tell the rest of this interesting story. - Darren

"I am the second owner of the watch; it was originally purchased fromMel Clar at Gray's Jewelers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by a friend of my familyprobably in 1969? as the watch matched his blue Corvette.In 1978, I helped my friend move his household furniture, etc. from Redlands to Palm Springs; this entailed some 14 round trips over threeweek-ends not including my driving the 160 mile round trip each week-endjust to arrive in Redlands. Cutting to the chase, after I had him allrelocated in his new abode in Palm Springs, he gave me the watch as hesaid he had fallen in love with another watch; and he wouldn't be wearing this TAG Heuer anymore. Thus, I became the second owner ofserial #: 157623. In the past, it has been serviced by a Palm Springsjeweler; and a jeweler in Beverly Hills; however, if I remember correctly,the Beverly Hills jeweler sent the watch to be serviced to TAG Heuer'sUS headquarters in New Jersey. This was my everyday watch for 14-15 years in Palm Springs--until it stopped running at which time I placed the watch in a sock and put itin a drawer where it stayed until a couple months ago; when I contactedTAG Heuer in New Jersey this time, they told me that they are sending all watches to be serviced now to Switzerland and the turnaround timeis 4-6 months. So, that's where I am.The loss of paint on the watch-face occurred during the time the watchwas in the sock in the drawer--which became a shock to me."

Thanks to Bill for the opportunity to share this story with our readers. This case of long term ownership deepens our knowledge of the mysterious paintless effect known to occur in early modelled metallic blue Monaco's. Its amazing to read that the mottled brassing effect we have labelled "paintless wonders" occurred during the period the watch was tucked away in the sock draw. It has long been theorized that its exposure to sunlight that causes the paint failure but i think the facts from this example seem to cotradict that fact.