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This May be a Hopeless Mess, So Let Me Add to the Brew

I will not claim to have this all sorted out. Maybe when we all have some spare time, we can be more methodical and agree on some conventions. In the meanwhile, some facts / beliefs:

  • The Viceroy cigarette promotion ran from the middle of May 1972, through the end of 1972, a relatively brief period.
  • I believe that Heuer was making the ones we call Viceroys (1-through-12 on the black dial; brushed steel hands, with red accents; and Tachymeter bezel), before the launch of the Viceroy promotion . . . serial numbers seem to establish this. These pre-Viceroys were being sold through normal dealer channels.
  • I believe that Heuer was also using the MH bezel on these pre-Viceroys, as the dealer / customer may have chosen.
  • I believe that Heuer continued to produce the "Viceroys" long after the Viceroy promotion had ended, and that these post-Viceroy chronographs used either of the bezels, Tachymeter or MH. I mean, they had loads of spare parts from the ramp up to the promotion, so I am confident that they continued to produce the watches.
  • Personally, I refer to all these that I have described so far as "Viceroys", the same way that we refer to so many different chronographs as "Sifferts".
  • On a physical level, there is no difference between a Viceroy purchased through the promotion and a Viceory purchased through a dealer. The only difference would have been in the inscription in the warranty booklet ("Viceroy, Louisville, Kentucky" for those purchased through the promotion and the dealer location for those purchased through dealers). [About which see below.] Of course, everything sold through the promotion had a Tachy bezel. [Don't you just love the "1163 TBL" reference, to describe the Tachy bezel and the Black dial!!]
  • There were 11630s sold through the Viceroy promotion, but they had a plastic crystal, instead of a mineral crystal.
  • The 11063 came long after the end of the Viceroy promotion, but the "Viceroy" name had "stuck", and I believe that Heuer referred to these as "Viceroys", even though they were never sold through the Viceroy promotion.
  • This leads me to believe that the "V" marked on any Autavia case stands for Viceroy, even if these cases were used for entirely different models.
All this, written on the fly, in the middle of a busy day at the office. I will promise a much more methodical treatment of the subject . . . very soon, I hope!!

Jeff

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: Hello OTDers,

: I have listed on ebay an Automatic Autavia 1163 (Black Dial, White
: register color variant, red accents) - I put in the title 1163T
: with Cal.11-i.

: I thought that was an appropirate way to list it.

: 1163 is the case style

: it's not a viceroy, so i excluded the V

: it has a tachy Bezel, so i included the T (if it had an minute/hour
: bezel i would have put MH at the end)

: I received an e-mail last night stating that the only watch that
: should be referred to as an 1163T is the Jo Siffert version.

: My thinking is that the Jo Siffert Autavia is a 1163T (one of many)
: that has a specific dial color variant (White Dial, Black
: Registers, blue accents), but maybe I am wrong.

: I wanted to know that i am listing the watch correctly - and
: thought i would ask the experts. What is the right nomenclature?

: PS - i did not list it as a "Derek Bell" ;)

: PSS - free shipping for OTDers in the continental US if you win the
: auction.

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