:going to not post it again, as i'm a bit lazy sometimes. thanks for doing the work for me.:)

: Last night J.H. posted a picture and a query in
: the forum. The bug with the forum seems to
: have gobbled up my reply as well as J.H.'s
: original post. Fortunately, I had left my
: HTML editor open with my response still in
: it. So here is a repost of my reply
: intersperced with J.H.'s original message.
: J.H.'s thoughts are in bold italic type,
: mine are in the plain indented text. I
: didn't have a copy of J.H.'s original
: picture, but it was of a Hamilton of the
: same model as this one:

: not a siffert or a heuer...

: for that matter, but it does have the cal 11,
: and the contrasting dial/subdials. this one
: needs some work, but based on the dial
: alone....i can see why the siffert is so
: highly sought after....

This style of
: dial both has it's virtues and some
: drawbacks, at least in my book. For a long
: time I had a bias against contrasting
: sub-dial watches, mainly because they seemed
: "flashy" in my book. However,
: after purchasing a few, my harsh attitude
: softened.

interesting. i never thought they looked "flashy," but rather more eye catching, but i guess that could be called flashy.

: I think that contrasting subdials add a
: "sporty" look to a chronograph. In
: the case of White Dial/Black Subdial
: examples, I find the dial, not only looking
: sporty, also seems to be very dressy as
: well. Almost like a White Tie chronograph.

agree on the sporty part, never thought of the dressy side, but i rarely dressup, so......

: As for the disadvantages, keep reading...

: talking about the siffert, even though my
: little hamilton is a far cry... \

Now
: don't sell your little Hami short... I
: recently picked up an interesting Hami
: myself... My Chronomatic Pan-Europ 707
: shares the c.14 movement that power many
: Heuer Autavia GMT's. A nice added feature
: that it's Heuer Half-Cousin's don't share is
: the under crystal Tachymetre scale.

nice find, i was watching that one myself, as well as another participant here, Paul, who clued me into it.

: J.H.... Did you by any chance pick up your
: calibre 11 off of eBay recently? I was
: looking at that one, but had computer
: problems that morning and was unable to bid.
: In any instance, don't be selling that one
: before you run it past me first.

yes won off of ebay in the last week or so, and sorry you missed out, but in a way i'm glad as i already had a blue dialed one, and really wanted it's brother.

okay when it's time for it to go, you get first look.

: now i'm curious what everyones pick of the
: most useful and readable chrono made by
: heuer is?? i don't mean the most popular
: like the monaco, although if that is your
: pick so be it.:) i'm more curious which
: heuer is the best and most useful for an
: activity such as racing, or whatever?

To
: be honest it's really hard to beat the
: Pasadena cased 7750's and 5100's all around
: for readability in chronographs, at least
: with Heuer's.
to me i find all the printing around and on the dial distracting from the subdials. while i like these ones and think they are cool, i wouldn't put these on the top of my list for readability.

The Carrera 5100 is another
: watch possessing superior readability, but
: it's plexiglas crystal makes it a less
: durable choice. For a high stress
: environment, say a racing cockpit (or flight
: deck for that matter) when you need to be
: able to read the chronograph literally in a
: blink of an eye, the Lemania 5100 gets the
: nod over the 7750. The center pinion
: chronograph second and minute hand are just
: that much easier to read than a small
: sub-dial minute counter.
agree with the carrera 5100. as well as the 5100 setup, but alot of that printing on the 501's becomes distracting to me again, although even though i'm not a huge fan of mineral glass, that flat surface does have a slight advantage to me in readability, assuming of course that it isn't all scratched up.:)

The Carrera
: 12 (c.1964) is also another good contender.
: Hard to fault the readability of this dial,
: but the larger dial and center pinion
: chronograph minute had of the 5100 is still
: tough to beat.

yeah, this would probably be my second pick, with the contrasting dial setup. i find that the different colored subdials bring my eyes right to where they need to be quickly, that's just me.

: while i don't own a siffert, i'm pretty sure
: the siffert autavia would be my pick. after
: all if it was good enough for siffert, it's
: definately good enough for me. what is
: everyone elses thoughts? thanks in advance
: for any participation in my not official or
: otd approved survey!:)e

Actually one of
: the disadvantages that contrasting sub-dial
: watches have is the delima of what color to
: make the main timekeeping hands. If you
: choose white or black (and have a white or
: black dial) you run into the problem of the
: hands getting lost in the dial or sub-dial.
: If you choose "naked" or polished
: steel hands, they can get lost if the are
: reflecting a light or dark background on top
: of a light or dark portion of the dial.

good point. that's part of the reason i like the blue center seconds hand of the siffert.

: An example of this is best shown by the
: sub-dial hands on my "domino"
: Japanese model Speedmaster Professional:
: All of the hands on this watch are
: polished (or rhodium plated) Stainless
: Steel. As you can see the polished steel
: sub-dial hands can easily get lost in the
: sub-dials which makes reading the
: chronograph difficult, and under stress
: nearly impossible unless the lighting
: conditions are nominal. My Bucherer
: c.1873 Chronograph takes an alternative
: approach in using white sub-dial hands which
: works well, but the problem with the main
: dial hands still exists.

fantastic piece, although it would be perfect, to me, with white subdial hands.

: This is one of the reasons I don't consider
: alternative subdial watches good candidate
: watches in high-stress situations.
good points as always.

: Well, that's my theory... What's yours?

thanks for sharing your insight and thoughts on my questions.

: -- Chuck

j.h.