Hi all,

this summer has been quite positive on Heuer collecting side, let's go in order starting from the last acquisition.

This popped up the 23 August on an Italian local AD website while I was surfing the web from my smartphone staying on Riccione's beach with my family, the dealer was located in Rimini, approx 10km away... took the car and after one hour was on my wrist... yes, is neither a rare nor a sought-after watch, but find an original one with PVD in mint condition is not so easy so I decided to buy it... paid cash so had a discount... here is dressed with an Abel's matt black 20/16 strap... moreover this is Monza weekend :-)

Going back in time I spent June in finding a good gray Monaco, started with an 1533G in my mind but nothing so good around, then I had a dinner with my friend Cipino where he shown me his 1133G with grey subs, never saw one in the flesh before, and has been love at first sight... after a while a good one popped up on Chronotrader, sent the usual email to Abel (thanks mate, as usual) that confirmed was all original and decided to buy it, is an early one with 1590XX serial, dial in very good condition with only a very limited gasket melt damage on the left side (but remains all under the plexi), but the thing that made me decide to buy it is that tritium on hands and dial is original and beautifully aged in a lovely creamy colour:

Talking about accessories, always in June I received from Giuliano this creamy 22/16 strap that perfectly matches the creamy lume of my NOS Movado Super Sub Sea (still waiting for the first service of his life :-( ):

But the thing that gave me more satisfaction has been that, after more than one year, I finally have been able to finish my project 11630 Autavia with silver dial:

Before going on I want to specify that this is not a "franken" watch because is made of all original parts (and many of them are NOS), let's say that has been assembled 40 years after by me and not into the Heuer factory... I have enjoyed so much in finding all the parts needed and I have to thanks many friends for their help...

Everything started more than one year ago with this Cal12 movement, bought as spare one for parts:

I serviced it (yes, I did my homeworks in last years) then put in the drawer...

then this dial popped up from Anthony:

then found this NOS handset (paid a fortune but worth the price), thanks Amer for helping me:

and made the creamy part repainted in white:

The case has popped up on Ebay and the Belgian master acted all his magics to wonderfully restore it:

I found the NOS pushers in Italy while the crown came with the hep of Giuliano and is another NOS part.

For the bezel at the beginning I was thinking to install a NOS insert one (the one in the first "exploded" image) but then I preferred to switch on an used Tachy one before and finally on an used and scratched MH I had in my drawer, as I wanted a beater for everyday use and not another "safe Queen" as the one bought from Abel some years ago (on the left the Abel's one with a late dial and the NOS tachy bezel, on the right the project one, difference is into the dial indexes, sorry for the poor quality image):

Last thing was the plated bracelet, even if, to be honest, I used only for a while because IMHO 11630 Autavias give their best on a simil Corfam strap.
I am really satisfied of the final result, the thing I prefer is that the orange hands match exactly the orange accents of the dial and the orange colour is bright but with that original "aging" that gives to the ensemble that real vintage look:

Hope you enjoyed the trip, thanks to you all.

Best.

Gianluca