Exciting news: last night the vintage Heuer fairy flew to the Cayman Islands and deposited USD 40,000 into the secret Calibre 11 bank account. The condition? That it all gets spent by Christmas on at least five vintage Heuer watches. Fortunately, the Bonhams auction of Arno Haslinger’s vintage Heuer collection is fast approaching- December 15 in London.
I’ve previewed the Auction back in May, but last week the on-line catalogue was launched, allowing a much more detailed review of exactly which watches from of Arno’s fabulous collection will be on the …

Back in February I posted a few photos of a tired Autavia that I had bought with the aim of having it restored. The 11063 GMT Autavia is one of the last of the Heuer Autavia series, and my favourite of the Autavia GMTs, with its all-black dial and over-sized case. They are however difficult to find, which is why I was prepared to buy one in need of some work.
The work was done by Abel Court, a well-known Heuer collector who has the magic touch when it comes …

A while back I bought this Heuer Autavia 11063 GMT on eBay. Its the first time that I’ve bought a watch for a restoration project, although I hasten to add that I will be doing none of the work myself due to a complete lack of relevant skills.

So, in the time-honoured tradition of restoration projects, here is an overview and a few photos of the “Before” watch with the “After” photos to follow when the project is complete.

NOS Heuer Autavia GMT with original sales packaging

Vintage Heuer collectors are usually difficult to please on the subject of originality, with watches being heavily scrutinised for any sign of non-original parts.
However, as this Autavia shows, there is nothing wrong with a customised Heuer, so long as its not pretending to be an original vintage piece- you know, the stories about an Autavia model that never appeared in any catalogue and was apparently only sold in a three small cities in Argentina during 1977…
This Autavia is the work of Abel Court, who details his creation- and collaborators-  here
What …

Like many things to do with Heuer watches from the early 1980s, the story of the Autavia Diver 100 is hard to untangle. The watch is from the last of the Autavia range- the 11063V- with its distinctive over-sized case and heavily scalloped bezel. Today the watch is second only to the Chronomatic Siffert Autavia in terms of value and scarcity. Yet, there are some odd things going on:

Why are we all of a sudden seeing a relative flood (albeit a trickle in absolute terms)  of these watches on the …

A scan of a 1969 Chronosport catalog showing the Chronomatic Monaco, Autavia and Carrera

One of the great aspects of the Heuer Autavia was the variety of movements, case designs and colours variations that are available. From the iconic two-register Automatic Siffert to the three-register GMT manual, there are many classic Autavia designs. Perhaps the rarest is the Diver 100 (Ref. 11063P), a model which appeared only once in the 1982 catalogue.
This model borrows much of its style from the Rolex Submariner- the bezel design, circular hour markers and Mercedes-style hands are straight out of the Rolex  design book. The Diver 100 comes on …