Stewart,
I have a very strong hankering for a grey dialed Monaco, too, new or vintage. However, you certainly made the right decision snapping up this Orange Boy. It's a beautiful watch and your photos of it are fantastic, too!
Steve

: Well, I've finally got around to making use of the Bank Holiday...

: I'm chuffed with the results, I wanted to do the Orange Boy proud.
: I was trying to get 'accurate' results like Paul's superb
: photography on http://www.heuerworld.com/ , hopefully I've come
: close, although I did have to mess around in Photoshop with
: levels etc (as well as take 50+ shots), as I don't have Paul's
: skill !

: I've strived to keep the orange areas as they are 'in real life' so
: you can see how bright they still are.

: There is a small back-story to this one. I've been hankering after
: a TAG Heuer Monaco (tut, tut), specifically the 'Heuer' badged
: grey model and/or the starburst grey Gulf edition (the one with
: white registers). Despite Monaco Rich bending my ear and urging
: me to 'go vintage', I still had an itch to scratch. So, I
: negotiated a decent deal on a new grey Gulf Monaco but the
: Italian dealer wanted an extortionate amount to deliver it, so
: the deal fell through. I was feeling a bit 'put out', then this
: 'Gulf Autavia' (as some call it) popped up, it even had the rice
: grain bracelet!
: So I'm a very happy bunny.

: (Although, and don't tell Monaco Rich, I still hanker after a grey
: Gulf Monaco - keep it quiet though.. shhh)

: Anyway, enough rambling..

: As ever.. more at:
: http://heuerville.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/autavia-1163-mh-orange-boy-or-gulf/

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: Stewart