We discussed this one in October 2006 -- http://chronocentric.com/forums/heuer/index.cgi?read=14885 -- when it was being offered on EBay, at a mere $6,666 BuyItNow. Back then, the seller stopped the auction, because he had concerns about the authenticity / franken status of the watch.
But now it is back, offered through Antiquorum (Geneva, October 3-4; Lot 32), with a pre-auction estimate in the $7,500 to $11,000 range. Here is the link to the Antiquorum catalog listing. When we were discussing this one back in 2006, at one point in the discussion, the owner (or actually the friend of owner) claimed that TAG-Heuer had authenticated this one, including the dauphine hands. Now, we see it again, and we are so much smarter, that we have some good questions:
- why the 100xxx serial number, if we thought that this was an early one (to explain the dauphine hands)? 100xxx seems to be later 1960s / almost 1970.
- now that we have the high resolution photos from Antiquorum, we see that the dots on the dial have been replaced / re-lumed. this alteration would not seem to be within the definition of NOS, is it?
What opinions from our Carrera experts? Mark? Arno? Are we "buying" this one, three years later, or can we be more certain that it is "put together"?
And for those who wonder how we know that this is the same Carrera that we saw in October 2006, the answers are (a) tiny dot by the inner bezel at 41.6 seconds and (b) placement, shape and discoloration of the lume dot at "55". Yes, most watches have a unique fingerprint.
Jeff
