Hi all.

After lusting after this piece I first spied on Stewart Morley's fantastic Heuerville blog, I candidly emailed him a few months ago and asked if the Hanhart was for sale.

"No, not really, but I'll think it over" replied Stewart.

Much to my amazement within 24 hours we had agreed on a price, so I set about offloading some pieces in order to get funds together to own the watch. Stewart ever the gentleman said "take your time", and it did take some time!

Here's the excellent original posting, detailing the McQueen connection. It's a really great read with loads of uber cool pics of McQueen racing motorcross bikes and wearing the Hanhart - well typical Stewart really!

https://heuerville.wordpress.com/?s=hanhart

After a wait of what seemed like months, finally the package arrived. With trembling hands I opened the box, and after carefully unfolding Stewart's lovely leather watch roll with handwritten note "Enjoy the Harry", I was gobsmacked. It was a lot larger than I had expected, and it just oozed immediate cool. He also threw in two great leather straps!

Stewart sold it to me with the understanding the chronograph didn't work, so off it went to my trusted watchmaker here in New Zealand for a full (sympathetic) restoration. In his words - "if this was a car it would have done a million miles!"

He had to make several movement parts from scratch as parts are understandably very hard to come by, and he did a tiny lume touch up on the minute hand. The watch now runs perfectly and the power reserve is better than any of my Heuer's!

The case is as found and is in really great unpolished shape, with the brass showing through on the pushers and crown but it's lovely. The dial and patina on the lume is really something to behold.

I love how this watch is still "under the radar" - you don't see these very often. This one is from 1957, and is one of only 500 pieces produced.

So thanks to Stewart for a fantastic transaction, and of course thanks to OTD which brings together all us enthusiasts from around the globe.

Nathan

p.s - make sure you read Stewart's posting about the Harry - his pics are way better than mine!