Hi all,

This post is to share with you all a recent arrival, a special manual-wound Monaco 73633B, special (at least for me) because is the one from the Richard Crosthwaite's book.

I was looking for this Heuer reference for months but I wasn’t able to find one in mint conditions, so my first thank is for this wonderful site (I posted some WTB and finally someone knocked at my door):

This watch has been originally sold from Rich in 2013 to a fellow collector of this forum (Jorge, I think is not a secret as your FS ad is still on Chronotrader), then Jorge sold it to another collector and finally it came to me.
The tiny dots on the plexi are dust (plexi is a replacement, see further), it is dressed with a simil-Corfam Abel's 22/16mm strap and a sun buckle:

So before going on I want to really thank:

- The previous owner (I assume he has no pleasure to be named as he isn’t an active contributor, even if he reads this forum, but you know who you are) for the stress I caused him, it tooks a couple of months of negotiation and approx. a total of 60 emails before arriving to the BT, probably another seller would have quit before, so thanks for all the effort and patience you had with me…
- Richard for his support (obviously I contacted him and asked if the watch was the original one);
- Jorge for the same reason (I didn’t know the seller and we all know that dealing with a seller that replies to a WTB could be risky if you don’t know him)

This watch probably is not NOS anymore as I don’t know if Jorge and the previous owner have ever worn it (but I assume so), for sure I did a couple of times after the service, but is still in NOS state and is exactly as Rich sold it in 2013 (that is almost perfect, the “almost” is for a small issue to the case near the pushers, see below).
It still has the orange sticker on the caseback:

And a wonderful, undamaged dial, probably one of the best ever (no gasket melt at all, the first image is taken from the web, notice the original pusher at 4 o’clock damaged in its outer border):

The only thing I disliked since the beginning is that the case has some bad scratches around the pushers (seems that the upper case has been held in a grip or a clamp) and the original lower pusher is a bit “bitten”, but this is exactly as is pictured on Rich’s book, so can be seen as a distinctive sign of this watch, a bit like a beautiful woman with a mole on her face (image taken from Richard’s book – Rich, I hope you don’t mind if I’m publishing this image):

As I didn’t know the service history I have it serviced from one of the best watch restorers in Italy, that is “Laboratorio Portanova” in Bologna.
I think they did a wonderful job with the movement (keeps excellent time and has a power reserve of approx. 48 hours, chrono works as it should), a couple of weeks of booking and another couple of weeks for the service and the watch was back in my hands.
They also asked me if I wanted to restore the case with the laser (to remove that bad signs), but, in this particular case, I say no as I prefer an original unmolested (and imperfect) case rather than a perfect but refinished one.

Apart from the movement service, the only two things I did to improve it have been a) replacing the plexi with a new one (to preserve the original) and b) replacing the lower pusher’s head with a NOS one. For the rest the watch is unmolested.

Here it is together with its automatic bro:

I hope you enjoyed the image gallery, and thanks you all for the patience to arrive until here.

Best.

Gianluca