About the Mappemonde

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The place for discussing 1930-1985 Heuer wristwatches, chronographs and dash-mounted timepieces. Online since May 2003.

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About the Mappemonde

In Response To: Heuer Prototype at Christies ()

Over the course of several years, I believe that most members of our community have regarded the so-called Mappemonde chronographs as fakes (meaning, in this instance, not made by Heuer).

This conclusion was based on:

statements by Jack Heuer that these watches were not made by Heuer
statements of other individuals who worked at the company, back in the day, to the same effect
the relatively poor quality of the finish / markings on the dials
the variety of markings on the movements
the poor quality of the "company" which they often kept (i.e., being found among other fakes) . . . as illustrated in the photos below
the fact that we have seen blank / no-name dials (i.e., with the world map, but without the Heuer name) floating around the market

Over the years, several auction houses included MMs in their catalogs, and then removed them, after closely examining the watches and the reference sources.
If you use the search feature on this forum, you will see many discussions of the watches, as they appeared in the market from time to time. [If you are searching the forum, be sure to check under various spellings of MM.] Here is a message posted by Mark Moss challenging the authenticity of the MMs -- Message Posted by Mark Moss
Of course, this prior conclusion now comes into question if TAG Heuer has authenticated one of the Mappemondes. It will be interesting to study the letter evidencing this authentication, and perhaps to understand the evidence supporting the conclusion.

Jeff