LeJour ref. 7000 made by Heuer

This is my LeJour chronograph. This ref. number is often called a poor mans Pasadena as it's almost identical to the Heuer Pasadena chronograph. Heuer manufactured LeJour chronographs under a private-label arrangement.

This one came to as a full set with original box and some papers. The original instructions for how to set the date/day whitout damaging the movement is still in the box. Very nice!

The last owner did clearly not read the instructions as the watch had some serious issues with the day mechanism.
Never ever change the date between 8 PM and 3AM it will damage the mechanism and the day will not shift as it should.

The only solution is to remove hands and dial to get access to the problem. If you know what to do this is a easy fix. The running second hand was also missing. Happily I had a spare in my part box.

All back together again and I have a lovely tool watch made by my favorite brand Heuer.

Heuer 844 Monnin restoration

I love the big size Heuer divers like 844, 980.006 and the other versions. They look cool and the size is quite big even by todays standard.

I have been looking for a 844 Monnin for a while. I wanted to find one that needed some work. The prices of these first generation Heuer diver has gone crazy.

In Germany I found a a very sad looking 844 quartz. It was just what I was looking for with totally wrong bezel, and a movement in pieces. The important cathedral hands was painted all white and looked awful.

But the watch had potensial to be nice again, and it had the very rare original oyster bracelet.

The cathedral hands had to be stripped down to bare metal before reluming. This kind of hands is very important for a correct 844 Monnin.

The movement had to be replaced it was totally damaged and in parts. A NOS movement (ESA 536.121) was found on Ebay from Egypt. 

A bezel was located in USA from a fellow Heuer collector and friend. New screw in crown was bougth from England.

Put together again this turned out to be a very nice early 844 Monnin with quartz movement.

There's at least two versions of the quartz Monnin. The 844 and the 8440. The last one has a French quartz movement, and the first has ESA 536.121.