You may recall that back in October, Calibre 11 posted an interesting Monaco project that was for sale in Singapore- a chance for a very brave soul to bring back a what looked like a PVD Monaco from very poor health.
Almost exactly two months later, we can now bring you the full story of that watch and the work that was done. Want to read all the details? Take a look here at the dedicated page to this fantastic Heuer restoration project.
There is also a link to the Heuer Monaco restoration page at the top of the Calibre 11 homepage.
My thanks to Abel Court for his time in detailing the work done on his Monaco.
One of the first watches that got me hooked on the vintage Heuer line-up was the 1533G Monaco- “G” for Grey, even though the dial has always looked silver to me. I remember considering buying one of these in 2006- a full mint set from one of the 
well-known Heuer collectors at OnTheDash. I still have the photos of that watch, and it is perfect. That set had a flawless Monaco 1533G (albeit not NOS) with original hands, bracelet, box and papers and the Heuer swing tag- all for a price of EUR4500.
Back in 2006 I had yet to discover OnTheDash and had only joined eBay a couple of weeks before the Monaco was up for sale, so I passed on the watch at the time not feeling experienced enough to know whether it was the right watch at the right price. Even though the price was certainly at the top end of 1533 Monaco prices, I’ve regretted letting that one go a few times and haven’t seen a better set for sale.
While not as complete as the set described above, I have recently added this 1533G Monaco to the collection.
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Now here is something that you don’t see everyday-a
Vintage Heuer Monaco 73304 PVD- or at least parts of one. The dial looks to be correct for the model:
- Unique hour markers, double markers at 12
- Unique Orange hands
- White date disc, black date
- Slightly elevated “12″and “6″ on the left hand sub-dial and “0″ and “15″ on the right
Now the bad news:
- The case has unfortunately been polished- was it a correct case with a no-grain finish, with the graining added later in the mistaken belief that this is what it should look like?
- The owner claims that the movement is a Valjoux 7736, which wouldn’t be correct…but its not 100% clear that the owner realises what they have, and so they could be guessing
Interested?
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/01Chronomatic.jpg "Chroomatic")
Without doubt the most fabled of the Heuer Monaco, Autavia and Carrera lines are those rare watches that carry the “Chronomatic” marking on the dial- a combination of the words “Chronograph” and “Automatic”. The very first Calibre 11 models released in 1969 have the Chronomatic marking on the dial, but these were only produced for a short time until Heuer replaced Chronomatic with the words “Automatic Chronograph” and moved the model name from below the hands to above the Heuer shield.
If you can find a Chronomatic Heuer, then buy it irrespective of condition- they command a very substantial premium over the later Calibre 11 models.
I’ve recently been looking around the website of the late Chuck Maddox, the renowned Heuer and Vintage watch aficionado. Chuck’s site contains a vast range of information, photos and articles written by Chuck up to the time of his untimely passing last year. Chuck’s blog is preserved here http://www.chronomaddox.com and it is well worth taking the time to visit.
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Hello and welcome to the Calibre 11 blog, which will focus on Heuer and TAG Heuer watches. I’m not sure how the blog will evolve, so lets see what happens. Comments from everyone welcome.
To start things off, here is a photo of my 1133B Monaco- no service hands here!
Cheers Arno
