A beautiful ref. 404

This is a great looking vintage Heuer from the late 1950s or early 1960s. This is the ref. 404 with a red tachymeter scale on the dial.

This watch belongs to a Norwegian watch collector that wrote to me after reading the Classic Heuers blog. He tells a interesting story about this Heuer.

He bought it in Sweden and the seller claimed that this watch has been owned by the well known German football player and coach, Berti Vogts. There's no proof of this ownership but it's a fun story anyway. Berti Vogts won the World Championships in 1974 with the German national team.

A 1974 picture of Formula 1 driver Ronnie Peterson (L) and Berti Vogts inside the Lotus F1 car.

This chronograph was one of the last with no name on the dial. In 1964 the Carrera legend was born. The ref. 404 is often referred as a pre-Carrera chronograph.

The movement is a Valjoux 23 correct signed Ed. Heuer on the bridge. After 1964, and the merge with Leonidas, the brigde would have been signed Heuer - Leonidas.

This watch is waterproof and has a screw in case back and watertight pushers.

Thanks to Marius Goberg Pedersen for the pictures of his nice Heuer.

A vintage Tag Heuer diver

Heuer became Tag Heuer around 1984/85. This mean that some Tag Heuer is sort of vintage by now. This lovely diver ref. 980.013N is a fine example of this. It's a Tag, but it look and feel much like vintage.

The dial and hands have a nice patina. The hands has a lovely creamy color. This gives the watch a nice vintage look.

If you are looking for a nice diver, but don't want to pay big money for a vintage Heuer 844 this is a nice alternative. It's a classic, looks good, and can be picked up cheap. Recommended!

Carrera ref. 3648 T

I got this nice vintage Carrera from a guy in Turkey. The watch was in good shape and runnig fine.

Carrera ref. 3648 T

The goldplated Carreras are always a bargain as they are not in demand as the stainless steal ones. This is a early one with first execution dial and hands. There's no black stripe on the hands or the hour markers on the dial.

The movement is Valjoux 92 signed Heuer-Leonidas.

If you look for a vintage Carrera on a bugdet, the goldplated ones are the one for you. They are still possible to find for a steal...

A little orange one

This is a little cool diver for the ladies. If you have one of the full size vintage heuer divers 980.007 or 980.005, this one will be a nice match for the lady in the house.

Ref. 980.011 28mm

There's plenty of black dialed 980.011 on Ebay, but these orange ones are rarer. Mine arrived complete with blue Heuer box and a genuine Tropic strap with a original 14mm vintage Heuer buckle.

These small diver can be picked up for a fraction of the cost of a full sized mens watch. Great fun!

New project; Carrera 12

My summer project is to retore this vintage Heuer Carrera 2448 T. It is in a rather sad state and the Valjoux 72 was missing several parts. I have now managed to track down most of them. That was not easy and very expensive. The hunt for parts is half the fun....

I really look forward to put this nice Carrera back in service.

Heuer ref 351 C/B

This is a very old Heuer one pusher chronograph. I have identified it as a Ref. 351 C/B.

I found this chronograph included in an offer to the Romanian Military Aviation Authority made by Mr. Josef Schneider, the Romania Heuer agent in the 1930s.
Mr. Schneider made an offer for several different Heuer chronograph to the Romanian Military. Among them was this ref.number, the 351 C/B. Check out the exellent site: http://www.ceasuripentruromania.ro/

This is the original letter from Mr. Schneider to the Romanian Military dated 18th. December 1936.

Heuer 1936 catalogue with the ref. 351 sendt from Mr. Schneider to the Romanian Military.

This old Heuer has an porcelain dial and a hinged caseback just like a pocket watch. The movement is a early version of Valjoux 22, the Valjoux GH. The movement is rather big and the watch size is 40mm.

The size is quite nice, almost as big as an automatic 1970s Autavia.

The old Valjoux GH movement is still ticking. It was missing one of the big wheels, but I managed to find the missing part on Ebay. The movement is now complete and running.

The early narrow Heuer logo is just still visible on the old porcelain dial. Most of the Heuers from this periode had no logo on the dial.

I think this big old chronograph looks very nice on a old stock open-end pigskin strap.

Argentine war veteran

This is my Autavia ref. 11630 MH issued to the Airforce of Argentine. There’s a few things that are different from a regular 11630 MH.

The Argentine Autavia has a deep glossy black dial. The hour and minute hands are brigth red. On a regular 11630 MH the dial is matt black and the hands are white og brushed steel.

I really like the ”harder” look of the glossy dial and red hands.

The movement is Heuer caliber 12 automatic chronograph. No suprises there.

There’s a very cool military marking stamped on the caseback. The back is marked with the crest of the Argentine Airforce and a issued number.

The Argentine Airforce issued several different Heuer Autavias over the years. Both early manual wind oned with Valjoux 72 and later automatic ones like mine. I have also seen GMT Autavias issued to the Airforce of Argentine.

It’s now 30 years since the war raged between Argentine and England over the Falkland Islands. The war started 1982 and was over in 74 days.

The fighter pilots from England did not wear Heuers. The Royal Airforce had a contract with CWC. Iit’s most likely the British Tornado and Sea Harrier pilots was equipped with the manual wind CWC military chronograph. This very clean looking chronograph is driven by a Valjoux 7733 manual wind movement.

I can not know for sure if my Argentine Autavia was in action during the Falkland war, but it’s most likely that the Argentine figther pilots whore their Autavias and the 11630 is the latest ref number I have seen thas was issued to the Airforce of Argentine.

It’s far from mint, but I really don’t care as it’s a issued military pilots chronograph that most likely has seen a lot of action. The wear and tear is part of the history of the watch. A watch that has been to war should not be restored to look like new.