Since the beginning of the year, I've been on a bit of a quest to fill a vintage Heuer void that's been nagging away at me incessantly. To begin with, I was thinking of the usual suspects, but a few months ago I decided to go for something less common and therefore focussed my attention on finding either a Montreal or Camaro in good enough original condition that I was prepared to add it to my collection. The Montreal fell by the wayside for a variety of reasons - not least cost - so for the last three or four months I've been searching far and wide for a three-register Camaro as "The Heuer One".

The Camaro was only made for a relatively short period - from 1968 to 1972. I think I'm right in saying that the two register variants were fitted with Valjoux 773X movements, but all of the three register versions had the venerable handwound Valjoux 72 - as found in the Daytona - inside the case. I really do like this model; the 37mm case is a lovely size, the styling is both sporty and elegant and they're rare enough to be genuine collector's pieces that you won't stumble across very often.

Ironically, and having missed a few on eBay and with various overseas dealers, a member on TZ-UK noticed a comment I made on one of Stewart's threads over there and dropped me a line; consequently, I'm now the delighted owner of a really, really nice example of a 7220NT from 1971. Not only have I found the watch I wanted, but this specific watch was sold in 1972 and then spent the next thirty years of it's life stored in a safe on behalf of the first owner. On his death it was "released" to his son but was returned again for storage after very little wear. Before I bought it the movement was stripped down and serviced, and it's now in my possession wearing the original Heuer strap and with the original box and hang tag. Here's a few pics from when that work was underway, and from which you can see that aside from a little tritium loss on the dial it really is like a near-new watch, inside and out...

I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am to Brian that the initial contact was made and the transaction so smoothly facilitated; I'd also like to say thanks to Stewart, who is consistent in his desire to help and has been an absolute star. This is a far, far nicer example than I thought I would find and it's already one of my favourites. Effectively, I'm just the second owner of a 40 year-old watch. How cool is that?