Yep these are really great, rare and undervalued if you compare with Rolex fetching a heafty price premium !!
One of my favourite Heuers for investment, very nice size too, elegant in all white and more twisty in the panda configurations.
The black dials even the later ones came with all steel hands so thats not an indication, however the dial itsself gives the real indication, look at subdials, T, Heuer logo....
Back to the fluted pushers discussion, as Jeff stated the fluted pushers were standard replacement, if that would be the case we would see all serviced Carreras with the fluted design, which is not the case. Maybe this is the case for the US as seen on Davids watch, I don't know. In Europe the standard pusher design is readily available however the fluted design is much rarer.
The very few watches I have seen or owned so far came from former Heuer people like Derek, were mostly deadstock and unmolstered, which is a strong indication that these existed at the end of the lifecycle, at least it can not be excluded and we shall look into it when the dial is a good fit.
Best Arno

: I would say "Hello Mr. Dato 12" and ask if it was doing
: well :)

: It's an interesting one and perhaps less clearcut on Dato 12s, as
: Jeff suggests above. But let's look at this particular watch. We
: see the fluted pushers, which on an Autavia or Camaro would
: indicate a later watch. But we also see the plain steel hands,
: which say earlier rather than later. So perhaps we have
: something of an anachronism going on. Do you have the first two
: digits of the serial?