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Abel (and Others): What is the Gold on these Plates ? ? ?

Abel:

Being in the business, what can you tell us about the gold finish on these Cal 12 and Cal 15 plates? what material was the plate made of? was the gold-tone a coating? what is the correct way to refer to these gold-colored plates?

Jeff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: Hello Mark,

: I think your answer...or better your question in the end is worth
: posing.

: I have my personal thought about this, let me explain. So you were
: saying "...but then why do we have a gold bridge that has
: been through the process?" An explaination could be that
: Heuer had such a big number of ready stamped "11"
: bridges that they still had huge stock of those when they
: started to produce the improved caliber 12. Heuer was still a
: very healthy company and wouldn't bother about the overstock of
: those caliber 11 bridges. So, first they produced the silver
: caliber 12 and afterwards the "gold" caliber 12 takes
: place....As stocks were running out and Heuer preferred to
: re-use its dead stock from caliber 11 bridges (which they still
: had plenty). They simply had to "erase" the 11 and
: afterwards stamp the 12 in the pit, ofcourse the
: "gold" finishing was also done.

: I think this is a very possible and logic explaination. In my
: humble experience over the last couple of years I only saw these
: caliber 12 with the 12 in the little blanking pit in the later
: Autavia models, such as the 11630MH, 11630T and the
: 11063-series. Also the Diver 100 were mostly equipped with
: these. So I think at the end of Heuer, before it became TAG
: Heuer...they used as much as old stock they could...this means
: also re-using the stock of the caliber 11 bridges...after they
: were modified in house.

: Please note, these are only my personal thoughts and I don't claim
: them to be true...I just think this is the way it could have
: happened.

: Other thoughts??

: What a great forum this is!!

: Cheers,
: Abel.

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