New discovery? 38mm automatic diver.

Looks normal untill you see the automatic on the dial.

As far as I know Heuer never made a automatic diver in the 38mm standard mens size diver.

We all know the famous ref. 844 jumbo 42mm automatic diver.  The one that was introduced in 1979 together with a tiny automatic ladies watch, the ref. 756.

This was the beginning of Heuers dive watch sucsess. Most watches sold was driven by a quartz movement.

AUTOMATIC printed on the dial looks genuine.

The most popular watches was the regular mens watch size at 38mm. The all steel ref. 980.013 and the two tone ref. 980.020 was very popular. All these watches was quartz only.

Untill today.....

I got three pictures from a Heuer-collector friend asking what I was thinking about a special 38mm Heuer diver.

Back still has sticker on and is stamped 180.020

The dial said AUTOMATIC, and the case back was stamped with ref. 180.020. Inside was a ETA automatic movement stamped Heuer.85 on the rotor.

The 980.020 is a two-tone quartz diver. This 180.020 was a automatic two-tone diver. Coluld this be a genuine automatic 38mm Heuer diver?
I think so....

We have seen this kind of ref.number system before.
The 1000m quartz diver has ref. 980.023.
The ref. 180.123 is the automatic Tag Heuer with all lume dial
The ref. 180.023 is the automatic Tag Heuer Spirotechnique.
All three share the same case. 980=Quartz / 180=Automatic.

These three watches was produced around 1985/86 when TagHeuer was the new name of the company. The 980.023 was introduced as Heuer, and later changed to Tag Heuer.

ETA movement stamped Heuer / 85 on rotor.

The movement on the new 38mm autodiver is stamped 85. This seems correct and places it in the same period of time as the other ref. 180.023 and 180.123.

The regular 980.020 Two-tone.

I think we has a genuine automatic version of the ref. 980.020 quartz. The ref. 180.020 Automatic.

The big question is why have we not seen more of this medium sized Heuer diver?
Was it ever put in production?
Any one with another 180.020 Automatic two-tone diver out there?