I remember doing this photo must be somehow in 2004 or so, both watches are still with friends.
The earlier one on the left...
Cheers
Arno

: I wouldn't say the silver dial printing was diagnostic in and of
: itself of an early watch, and would thus hesitate to ascribe
: more value to it. In conjunction with other tell-tales though
: (poly caseback, Ed Heuer bridge) as on Arno's watches, then it's
: easier to be definitive about it being an earlier watch. The
: serial number, given everything on the watch being original, is
: then the clincher.

: If we take the Dato 12s as a case in point, we do see some
: "mid-term" dials coming out with silver dial printing.

: And then moving on to NSes; as I alluded in my reply to your
: two-reg question (
: http://www.chronocentric.com/forums/heuer/index.cgi?page=1;md=read;id=38606
: ), none of these are likely to be early watches. So I think
: we're seeing the effects of Heuer and their dial suppliers
: playing around with different dial finishes over time. I've
: corresponded with other forum members about how there seems to
: be at least two distinct batches of SN dials - the same could be
: true about the NS dials too.

: Jeff's point about the S dials is interesting too ( the
: earlier ones with "flat" white paint and the later
: ones with the white / silverish "starburst"
: finish ). The "white" dials have an almost
: enamel-like finish (that I've seen crack like enamel on rare
: occasions too), whereas the starburst dials are pretty much out
: and out silver as far as I'm concerned, going further than
: silverish. The difference is even more obvious when the dial has
: one of the specialist scales on it too, with the scale being on
: a very distinct "track" on the whiter dials and
: blending more into the rest of the dials on the silver ones:

:
:

: We did discuss some of these details when we were working on the
: Carrera table, but I think definitively dating and including
: them all would have been the devil's own job and we might never
: have finished! And it would give us less to talk about after the
: event too :)