Mark:

first reaction: Chronomatic Collage is an absolute masterpiece . . . very instructive to study this!! and to think, for around $150K, you could own all nine of them, and study them in the metal!! Rolex has its "Big Crowns"; now we see Heuer's "Big Chronomatics".

second quick point: For sure, this white-on-white Chronomatic Carrera dial has been in a watch; no doubt about that . . . I am just wondering whether it was put there by Heuer?

more later!!

Jeff

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: I took a while to look at this one, digest some of the valid points
: that people have come up with and see what I really thought of
: it.

: Jeff is already familiar with my concept of the "known
: unknowns", a (mental) list of watches I keep that I have
: never seen in the metal, in a photo, or in documentation, but I
: have reason to believe may exist. As opposed to an "unknown
: unknown", which would be a complete surprise of a watch.
: Some of the known unknowns have since appeared - the 2447 NT
: first execution and 1153 S 'Yachting' spring to mind.

: One of the watches on there is an 1153 Chronomatic in silver. I
: have seen sales documentation stating the Carrera Chronomatic
: was available in charcoal and silver, but it was from a
: third-party rather than Heuer themselves. Nonetheless, I
: believed (and continue to believe) that there is a good
: possibility that the Carrera with Chronomatic marked dial was
: available in both N and S versions. Not to do so would have
: broken with a long standing Carrera tradition and run contrary
: to the Autavia, which had less history of silver/white dials
: before the Siffert. I also entertained the possibility of an
: 1158 with Chronomatic dial, but that felt a bit less likely. On
: the basis of the earliest watches and catalogues, I suspected
: that if an 1158 Chronomatic did exist, it would most likely have
: the silver dial.

: And now we have a silver dial before us, with non-contrasting
: registers (well, not quite but I'll come to that), which would
: suggest that it was intended for an 1158 rather than the 1153.
: The 1153 S Chronomatic, if it exists, I feel would have the same
: black registers as the later series production model. That this
: dial also has gold markers is a clincher - there's no reason for
: an 1153 to have anything other than steel markers. And as Paolo
: pointed out, it is correctly missing the onyx 12 o'clock marker
: from later watches, just like this early watch does:

:
:

: Plus the Singer marking is correct, as Paolo also notes.

: The script gave me some pause for thought. So I put a little
: Chronomatic collage together:

:
:

: Some people have noted that it's not a good fit for the Chronomatic
: 1153 Ns we know of. I would agree, there are a number of
: differences against those dials. Not a good match against the
: Monacos or the Autavia 1163 T either, look where the
: "Chronomatic" text on those lines up against the Heuer
: shield.

: And then.... and then we come up against the Autavia 1163 MH. Very
: different script on those compared to the 1163 T. The text is
: wider, with the C, h, i and c all being more or less outside the
: width of the Heuer shield. The Cs are nearly closed, with
: elaborate serifs. The first O is slightly oval, the second more
: round, unlike the other Chronomatics where both Os are more
: distinctly oval. And we see all the same things on this
: "new" Carrera dial. Which bodes well for originality -
: we have no other 1158 Chronomatics to compare it against, but we
: can see echoes in a sister model.

: I'm not sure why there are comments about it not being mounted on a
: watch. It clearly has been. There are marks where the hands have
: been removed, wear from the tachy bezel and marks on the reverse
: where it has been mated to a movement. Whether this was in 1969
: or subsequently is impossible to tell, but I would say if has
: definitely been part of a watch at some point. None of those
: scream to me prototype dial, not intended for sale.

: What might suggest that, though, are the registers. They are
: white rather than the clear silver of what we usually consider
: the finished article. Let's use Paolo's to demonstrate:

:
:

: Clearly the registers are finished in the same silver as the rest
: of the dial. The other Chronomatic dials didn't have a metallic
: finish on the registers but that shouldn't have been a problem
: for Singer - they had supplied silver starburst dials with
: silver registers for the launch of the Carrera in 1964 after
: all. But these white ones don't look to have been ground down
: and refinished - the ridges are still clearly visible. Let's
: remember how these chronograph dials are typically constructed
: though. They are a series of plates pressed together in a
: sandwich, allowing for the registers to have this recessed look
: and easily to be in a different colour from the dial itself.

: And hang on a bit more. From the photo of:

:
:

: can we be entirely sure that one doesn't have white registers too?
: Hard to be sure from the photo, but I wouldn't rule it out
: entirely. You'll note that both early dials have a radial
: starburst finish rather than the vertical brushing of later
: watches too. Paolo, as you have tracked down the owner, do you
: think he could confirm for us whether that example has white or
: silver registers? And Rich, can you confirm the colour of the
: date window surround?

: All considered, I'm definitely leaning towards genuine. Will be
: interesting to see the replies to my two queries above.