Hi Jeff, hi all,

since you posted “The Essence of Heuer” topic I started thinking what could really be the ESSENCE of Heuer NOWADAYS, and I arrived to some conclusions (summarised at the end of the post).

As I have to post some Heuer images (but I already posted, so sorry in advance for being boring), I decided to post two of my Heuer (no drivers wearing watches images this time), the choice of which of them to be posted has been driven by the fact that they are exactly at the opposite of the usual Heuer collectors taste, that is they are one of the most sought after and one of the less (probably THE less) desirable ones, but I love them both because they both have two “suffered” stories (that is not "picked and wore"). Moreover they are also the most expensive and the cheapest ones of my modest collection.

The NOS Monaco 1133B has been found as a fortuitous event and is exactly as I found – overhaul apart (I was looking for a couple of earrings for my wife and, after I bought them, before exiting the shop I asked the usual question: “Do you still have some Heuer in your safe?” Then I spent four/five months of phone calls and visits/travels to negotiate the price and to make it service…).

The goldplated Carrera, instead, has been wanted since the beginning, found unsold on Ebay in a closed auction, I fell in love with its wonderful and particular dial so decided to make restore the case from Abel (a great job if you would have seen the bad conditions of the goldplated case before the intervention) rather than dismounting it to make a spare cal.12 movement. Some months after the restoring I also found its original bracelet on an Italian local ad website.
But why have I told again about this restoring? Because honestly I would have never bought some of my watches if I wouldn’t have the precious suggestions of some watchmakers who helped me in deciding if the watch was worthing to be bought (the 1st thought that came in my mind when I find a watch that needs some cares is: “Can I make it restore to its original beauty? There will be someone able to take cares of it in a proper way?” The answer is YES).

Coming to a conclusion, IMHO the essence of Heuer NOW can be summarized in three points:

1) The existence and the job of a man like Jack W. Heuer, a man that in many cases has been able to look probably too ahead for that era and so able to create enduring timepieces, sometimes understood (like the Monaco, but also other ones) at that time but that will have lived and rebirth many years after because of their fascination and modernity;
2) The existence of a strong (and always stronger) community of collectors (and friends in many cases) graviting around this Forum and around the idea of a man that ten years ago decided to share his passion building that reference website that “OnTheDash” is. Probably would never have existed this wide community without OTD, probably many local ones linked to local forums;
3) Last but no least, the existence of some pro watchmakers graviting around this forum (we all know the names) driven by their personal passion for those timepieces - before than their necessary emolument – and so able to bring back to its original beauty those beloved timepieces (have you all ever wondered what would be your watches if there wouldn’t exist such skilled craftsmans? Im many cases will be knick-knackes for your drawer…).

Without the conjunction of those three elements I wouldn't ever started collecting Heuer timepieces.

Open to your thoughts.

Best.

Gianluca