Pairs of Aces- Heuer Autavia 11630 & 11063
Summary
As we’ve showed you before on Calibre 11, it’s possible to restore many areas of a vintage Autavia, most notably the case. Hands- while hard to restore- can generally be found, which leaves two parts- the dial and the bezel.
My approach with the dial is to either leave it alone- as I did on this 11063 GMT- or to try and replace it. You can clean a dial, but it’s never a good idea to “touch it up” with a little paint here and there. You’ll destroy the value immediately and more than 90% of “re-dials” can be instantly spotted and look terrible.
The bezels simply can’t be repaired and there are no decent generic replacements available. TAG Heuer ran out of spare bezels some time ago for most models, and so for these watches it is the bezel that is the key to value.
Part of the magic of collecting vintage watches is picking your way through the minute differences between the various models, which has to be done with an understanding that production standards were very different in the 1970s and 80s, when Heuer would simply change parts mid-stream…and without anyone on the internet noticing!
As for the Autavia, we can only hope that TAG Heuer finds the right opportunity to bring back the Autavia re-edition, as it did with the Monza in 2011. If it does, the GMT and Diver versions should be right at the front of the queue, whether they be based on the 11630 or the 11063. Either would make a fantastic addition to the modern TAG Heuer range.
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Great article David and nice to see the vintage Heuers making a comeback on calibre11. As a serious collector learning new things is a less frequent occurrence but I always do from you. I found the difference between the 11063 Diver and GMT cases quite surprising. I also think that the 11063 GMT is as rare as the 11063 Diver or any other automatic Autavia for that matter. If ebay is any measure of things I only saw one 11063 GMT in the past 4 years. Looking forward to the next one. regards Paul http://www.heuerworld.com