One of the most enjoyable parts of vintage watch collecting is the thrill of the hunt- some of these models are so rare, that its not just a case of paying over the odds to get the watch you want- sometimes, they’re just not available.

Without doubt, the most iconic vintage Heuer is the Heuer Monaco- Steve McQueen’s watch. A crazy square case with its distinctive blue, white and red dial. For many people its the very reason that they become attracted to the Heuer and TAG Heuer brand. And when you talk about the  Heuer Monaco there is one model that is rarer and steeped in more mystery than any other- The black Heuer Monaco 74033 PVD- known as the “PVD Monaco”.

For many years there was doubt over whether these were really made by Heuer and it wasn’t until their authenticity was confirmed by Jack Heuer in 2007 that everyone was satisfied. For more background on these watches, and a registry of all known examples, take a look at the OnTheDash PVD Monaco registry here .

This is the story of one PVD Monaco that was rescued from Singapore and given a new life- and its the story of one collectors hunt for his ultimate watch. You may recall the post on Calibre 11 that discovered this watch back in October- well, here is what happened next.

The lucky owner is Abel Court- a well known member of the Heuer collecting community and someone who has honed his skills at both watch-making and re-working Heuer cases- always in a gentle way that remains true to the original design.

With some help from his friends, Abel has done an amazing job in turning a pretty tired and beaten up watch into something very special. Yes, its a re-polished watch- but all parts are original and correct and just compare it back to what it was.

Below is Abel’s own account of the project- and my thanks to him for taking the time to recount the story for the readers of Calibre 11.

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The Search

I’ve been a Heuer collector for around six years now, starting from the time that I discovered a 1533G Monaco in the stock of my fathers watch shop. By daily profession I’m a Goldsmith and my father is Master-Watchmaker- so it’s no surprise that I have the watch collecting virus. Together with my brother, I’m the 4^th generation of watchmakers in my family. Around two years ago I had built my Heuer collection to include the essential vintage Heuers- a Siffert Autavia, a McQueen Monaco and some other Autavia’s and Monaco’s. At this point I started to like the Carrera Dato 12 and of course the mythical PVD Monaco.

It all starts with a dream, a certain desire to own a particular watch. Well, this feeling should sound very familiar to every serious vintage collector. You should know of what I’m talking about now. But I also always keep in mind something Jeff Stein from OnTheDash once told me: “Don’t confuse scarcity with value”.

This brings me to the PVD Monaco. I started to search for information at OnTheDash, where I knew there had been some discussions in the past- and I studied the details: the unique dial, the case finishing and the movement. After a while I knew enough to be certain this would be my next and ultimate Heuer- my “Holy Grail”.

So I searched and waited- and then searched again and again, every day, every week. There were two PVD Monaco “projects” that had caught my attention over the past two years- both of which I passed on because I thought that they either weren’t right or were too expensive for my wallet.

A Find from Singapore

On October 15, a story was posted on Calibre 11 about what looked to be a PVD Monaco for sale in Singapore. The watch had been stripped of its PVD coating and was in quite poor cosmetic condition- in fact, it wasn’t 100% clear whether this actually was a genuine PVD Monaco, as the seller thought that the watch had a Valjoux 7736 movement rather than the correct Valjoux 7740.

This was not the first time that the seller had tried to sell this particular watch- a similar “For Sale” post two years earlier had attracted no interest from any buyers. The Seller simply posted the watch again online and it was picked up by Calibre 11- Thank you David [DC: My pleasure Abel- Nice to be able to repay some of the help you’ve given me over the years]

At this point I immediately had the right feeling. But considering it was already several hours after the original message was posted, I was pretty sure there would be other potential buyers for this “PVD-Project”, especially at that price [DC: The Seller had listed the watch as a genuine Vintage Heuer Monaco, but its unclear that he realised how rare his watch was- hence a reasonable asking price].

To make a long story short…I was the one who finally bought the watch. Unluckily there were two or three other people who were disappointed. Afterwards I came to know that the people who were also interested in this watch (and made the seller an offer) appeared to be well known fellow-Heuer-collectors too…So, after we finally closed the deal…I only had to wait for the package to come in. And the wait began…

The Real Thing?

So, I only had seen a few pictures from the watch that didn’t show a lot of detail- but just enough for me to be happy that this was a genuine watch- it was condition of the dial and hands made me do it.  I immediately fell for their natural patina: nice vintage lume on the dial and orange chronograph hands.

The case was a different story, as you can clearly see from the original seller pictures. The case had been re-polished, but worse than this it had been re-polished incorrectly and without consideration for the original finish. The original PVD layer had been completely removed and the case-back was brushed in the wrong direction. The edges of the case-back that are supposed to be high-gloss polished, had for some reason been given a brushed finish- a nightmare.

In fact, the case was my biggest concern. As I know only too well, it’s a very difficult job to re-finish a Monaco case and still retain the integrity of the original finish- and isn’t that what it’s all about with these timepieces, respect for originality?

Regarding the movement, I was always confident that it would turn out to be a genuine Heuer- signed Valjoux 7740 Calibre. While the seller believed that watch had a Valjoux 7736 movement, this was unlikely given the differences between the two movements (the space between the pushers of a Valjoux 7740 is much more then with a Valjoux 7736). Servicing and spare parts for this movement would be no problem at all…or at least would be one of the smaller challenges.

Unpacking and first conclusions

One of the most exciting moments for any watch collector is the arrival of a new courier package. Before opening I cleaned my workbench, just for my peace of mind and to make sure nothing was misplaced. Opening and taking the watch out of the bubble-wrap paper immediately gave me a good feeling- the watch looked much better than in the pictures, especially the condition of the case-back, which wasn’t as bad as I’d feared and I knew could be improved easily without taking big risks.

The dial and hands looked just as I’d expected- awesome patina. The movement was working perfectly as was the chronograph function. So there it was on my workbench…my “PVD-Project”…my PVD Monaco with almost no PVD left on it. I was determined to give this watch what it deserves…a second life and wrist-time.

When opening the case I saw that the watch had suffered from corrosion in the past, nothing major but it sure left some marks on the winding mechanism of the Valjoux 7740 and also some slight spots on dial and hands. The pushers and crown were all in a good, albeit used condition. All the parts were there, but in need of a serious polishing and new sealing.

Restoring the Case

Opening a Monaco case is as simple as it gets- once you know how. The top-case was fixed firmly to the case-back, which meant that all four springs were still intact. While removing the top-case I saw that the crystal and its sealing were actually in a remarkably good condition, meaning no sealing-problems for the dial. Probably these had been replaced when the watch had its last decent service.

The entire case had been very badly refinished. Starting with the top-case, I had to sharpen every edge as all edges had been polished away, almost losing the the original structure of the Monaco. Obviously refinishing the top-case would make the watch entirely different and there were only a few signs of the original PVD coating remaining.

The case-back had the same problem, but here I still had some room to make big improvements with little work. The value of a Monaco obviously depends a great deal on the quality of the finishing on the case-back- it has to have the original finished pattern: Brushed sloped surfaces, longitudinal grinding in the circle and polished edges.

Hands and Dial- left original

When lifting the movement out of the case one has to be very careful not to damage the dial. The next step was lifting the hands off from the movement. And this is always a very exciting moment as lots of things can go wrong at this point- again, I had to be extremely careful while handling the dial. The hour-markers are lume stripes applied directly to dial which can easily fall off with the smallest touch…as you can see there were already missing some parts of the lume-stripes (at 3,4,5 and 9 o’clock). I chose to keep the dial in its original state rather than removing the original ones and applying new lume to the dial.

This very careful and detailed cleaning of the dial took me some three hours. I decided to leave the hands untouched as well- I didn’t even clean the hands due to the risk of further damaging the vintage lume. It would have been very easy re-paint the orange chronograph hands, but that would not have been consistent with the rest of the hands or with the dial, so I left them as they were. I’m very satisfied with this result and think other collectors won’t argue on this point.

Servicing the movement

Servicing the movement was fun. The well constructed base movement Valjoux 7740 is a very robust and reliable movement with no surprises. And of course the chronograph module is well known as we also find it on the Calibre 11/ 12 Heuer Chronomatic movement. I then placed the dial and hands back on movement after final regulation and fine tuning of accuracy. It was very strange for me to hear a vintage Heuer Monaco tick at a rate of 28,800 vibrations/hour.

The Final Touches

I was now ready to spend some time finishing the top-case, making sure it had the correct edges and proportions. I sent the top-case and original vintage Heuer buckle to Igor in Italy to have the PVD-coating applied, having practised the finish on a customised Heuer Autavia a few weeks previous to check the consistency of the finish was what I wanted. Great job Igor- and my thanks.

The crown and pushers were of course also serviced- for the pushers, I decided to use a NOS pair that I had in my spare parts. The crown itself was in remarkably good condition, and so I decided to only give it a light polish and a new inner sealing.

The Crystal and sealing were replaced with new items and a correct Corfam strap added.

The Finished Watch

So here is the finished watch- not NOS, not 100% untouched, but something that I am very happy with and that fulfils the dream

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Amazing what can be done with a lot of skill, patience and hard work- great watch Abel- wear it well and I think its fair to say that while many of us could have taken this project on, very few of us could have done the watch more justice.