Hi all,

I wrote this post to gratefully thank Abel (and other kind collectors, see at the end) for the wonderful job he did on this goldplated Carrera and to demonstrate that also goldplated watches can be perfectly restored (some people told me the opposite).

In January 2013 I found it on Ebay in an ended auction, probably no one wanted it as happened to the ugly duck.
I know very well that the barrel case Carreras are probably the less collectible references of the Heuer brand, and the goldplated one even less than the SS ones, but its astonishing dial simply caught me and moreover I like those ’70 cases with covered lugs…

I contacted the owner and received some images: the dial and the main hands were simply perfect (the previous owner told me that dial and hands had been replaced with NOS ones, I don’t know if it’s true but are really mint, probably the hour markers have been relumed because they still glove in the dark), the movement was serviced and seemed very clean, the glass was scratch-free, pushers and crown were good plated, the only problem was the case condition (some dings and a bad oxidation of the case near the pushers and the crown, probably this issue discouraged the potential owners to buy it…).
Here the images as I found it:

So before buying it (and risk to have a non-usable watch) I sent two emails, the first to the Belgian Master (he had scheduled for me a full service on another watch so I was waiting to do a shipping towards Belgium) and the second one to Mark Moss (that I remember he had a spare case like mine).

Abel told me that wasn’t a problem to restore it, relapping the case (and removing the dings with the laser) and replating it was a normal job for him.
On the other side Mark Moss had been very very kindle because he offered me its case at a very cheap price and he also offered himself to help me finding a mint one, but at the end I gave up the idea to buy another case in similar conditions and decided to restore mine.

Happy of Abel’s answer, I contacted again the owner and, after having negotiated a bit on the price, at the end I bought it (basically sold at a price just a bit higher than the sole movement) and some weeks after I removed the movement and sent the naked case (with glass, inner ring and back) to Abel together with the other watch.
Here below some images of the watch just arrived and dressed with a handmade strap made by Giuliano:

After some time I received it back and the result really surprised me: the case had been fully relapped, the big ding at 4 o’clock around the glass disappeared and the 20 micron goldplating re-applied (saving the serial numbers and the “18K GOLD ELECTROPLATED EPSA” writing too). I think that when the Carrera exit from Heuer’s factory around 1974 was exactly like now :-) (images of property of Abel):

While I was looking at these images to upload them I was thinking that it’s a fortune to have people like Abel that can come back to life old watches otherwise destined to the drawer…

And this is the watch now, dressed with a black 18mm simil-Corfam Abel’s strap (that fits perfectly the black sub-counters) and a NOS goldplated sun buckle:

Since the watch returned from Abel I just wore twice, let’s say that goldplated watches aren’t everyday watches (usually I wear sporty at job and prefer bigger Heuer’s cases or modern TH for everyday job), but I’m happy to have restored it because IMHO it’s an uncommon watch - even if not sought after - and a real beauty…all at the lowest price you can spend for a genuine ’70 Cal.12 Heuer…

I don’t think I will buy soon other goldplated watches (my “wishing list” has other references) but, in case of a bargain will occur, I know that I can trust on the Belgian Master for a perfect restoring ;-)
Thanks Abel, and sorry again if I literally bored you with all my requests and questions…

Before thanking you all to have read this story I want also thank other people who helped me in this trip:

- The previous owner (Ciao), that accepted to give me the watch with a big discount after I told him I wanted to restore it;
- Juerg from Artomatique for having offered me his NOS goldplated sun buckle at a really honest price (not many goldplated sun buckles out there);
- Mark Moss for his precious help and his kind friendship (we never met and was the 1st time I wrote him, but he treated me like an old collector friend, in the full spirit of this forum);
- My friend Giuliano for his beautiful brown strap (it’s always a pleasure).

I hope not to have bored you.

Ciao.

Gianluca