I recently had the opportunity to pick-up this Heuer 844. I find it interesting as it seems to be between a Monnin 844 and Heuer 844-1 (or 844-2). Could this be a transitional piece? I've seen ads for 844-1, but they usually have a "Swiss Made" dial and ETA movement. They do have Heuer-Leonidas stamped inside case back as this one does. Is it possible that Heuer took over Monnin stock (such as dials/movements/cases) when they first started production and these are very early transitional 844-1's with French dial, ‘France Ebauche’ FE 4611A movements and 844 cases?

An 844 Monnin recently sold here, and when comparing two, both 844's match each other very closely. They both have 844 marked cases, French dials and even "HEUER" stamped on the rotors of the FE4611A. (I've attached the link to the recent sale for comparison). As another interesting point, this watch is in the USA and the watch that sold recently was in Portugal. Serial numbers are not far apart: This watch 12049 and the watch that sold was 10651.

I'd love to hear some thoughts/opinions. Here are a few pics for reference. (I apologize for the very poor images, I had a local watchmaker open the back and snap for me. I'll try and post better one if necessary.)

Here is the 844 that sold & this watch matches:

http://chronocentric.com/forums/chronotrader/index.cgi?md=read;id=41463

Here is some pics of this watch:

844 Movement on Watch that just sold with Heuer etch on FE 4611A:

As always, I appreciate the opinions of the more experience members.

Thanks! - Jeff