Here's the sellers response to my e-mail telling him his watch is not an Autavia:

"Don't take my word for it, here is physical evidence: The watch is triple stamped, case back, movement, dial. The movement perfectly matches the case with absolutely zero signs of retrofitting and appears to be 100% made for the case from the factory. The watch case has no signs of tampering what so ever. The stamps on the movement and case back are identical "HEUER-LEONIDAS SA". The movement is definitely a Heuer Autavia movement. The dial shows genuine signs of aging and shows no signs of tampering or refinishing aside from the red hand. It appears to have been re-painted red at some point in time. The watch expert we had look at the watch is one of the foremost authorities on the west coast and even works at the Antique Roadshow. He was familiar with this model and has seen other examples before. Go to http://www.vintageheuer.com/archivewatches.htm and you will see several examples of Autavias with this case configuration. One with the 3 crown configuration can also be seen here: http://www.yorktime.com/search?cid=17:sku=253 . If you have any references which state that this configuration is fake I would definitely like to examine them."

Here's my response to the above message:

"I'm not real sure what you are looking at but Jonathan Scatchard's website shows ZERO Autavia's with the same watch CASE as yours, I'm afraid. First of all, all Autavia's have an external rotating bezel, yours does not. Secondly, the shape of the case is very different. A real Autavia has a somewhat oval sized case in comparison to yours which has an almost square (or pincushion) style case. If you and your expert can not readily see that difference in the cases you both may need to see an optometrist. Look again! Geez man, can't you allow yourself to admit this is not a real Autavia? Perhaps it has had a dial change but it was never an Autavia. See www.onthedash.com and click on "chronographs" (left hand side of opening page) and then click on Autavia where you will see all the variants of the real thing. As for your Antiques Roadshow expert saying this is an Autavia, well he is sadly mistaken and not a Heuer expert in my book. Sorry, the truth hurts sometimes."

His response was absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. How can he not see the difference in case styles? This is pure craziness!!

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