: As for the numbers game with the missing 1143, I frankly don’t
: believe we had any special reason not to use that number and
: certainly not reserved it for some new “Automatic Camaro”.
: In those years we where not that sophisticated with numbers for
: the wrist watches, whereas for the numerous stopwatches we did
: have some sort of strucuctured numbers code that allowed to
: indentify the divisons, calibre etc.

Ah, but they did have the structured code for the watches by then, doubtless inspired by the pre-existing ones for the stopwatches. It was a nascent code when the Vj 773x watches were being introduced but the structure was firmly set by the time the Cal 11 models arrived.

The numbers we see in the "series" position within that code for the 7730 watches (7763 for Autavia and 7753 for Carrera) are reflected in the later 1163 and 1153 reference numbers.

The Cal 11 reference we don't see? 1146. And the reference for the 7730-powered Camaro? Why, 7743.

I wonder how much Jack as the then head of the company was involved in minutiae like defining model reference numbers, but it seems clear to me that whoever designed the schema allowed for an automatic Camaro, even if the model was never planned.