For the last 10 years, I've been (casually) looking for a nice 2446C in the last execution (red accents; black inserts in the markers and hands; heavier needles on the chronograph recorders). We have all seen a lot of these Autavias -- hands have often crumbled; lume has gone to black; dots are missing; bezels are banged up; cases are often over-polished; etc. I have owned a couple / sold a couple, as they never looked quite "right" to me. I was beginning to think that there is no such thing as a really nice sample of this execution.

So I bought this one a couple of months ago, on ChronoTrader. It looked good (other than the missing hand / needle on the hour recorder), and was on the original bracelet, but it turns out that the movement was a complete wreck and there were some issues with the case-back / seal. [Advice for readers -- when a chronograph is missing one of the needles, you may find the reason for that, when you get into the movement . . . and it may not be simple to repair.]

One note -- This one measures 40.8 millimeters across the bezel, so with all the noise about the new Autavia being over-sized at 42 mm, it's interesting to see where Heuer was, at the end of the 1960s.

Anyway, it's back from the spa now . . . looking good and running strong. It's nice to add this one to the collection, the last of the manual-winding Autavias from the 1960s, before the move to automatic Autavias in C-shaped cases. Yes, these do exist . . . a nice sample, of the last of this generation!!

Jeff