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My Heuer Carrera Dato 12.

: This is not quite the “regular” Heuer I would be interested in.
: I did saw it several times on vintage watch fairs but I never
: gave it much (or enough) attention. Always thinking it was to
: classic for me and that it was too small for my wrist.

: It was untill the first Heuer Summit in May 2008 at TAG Heuer
: headquarters I really began to appreciate this particular Heuer
: wristwatch. There’s an example of such a Carrera Dato 12
: displayed in the TAG Heuer museum, one with white dial and black
: subregisters, reference 2547 SN. At that specific Heuer Summit
: we were also lucky enough to get a look at a part of the private
: collection too! Also in this collection there were two of these
: Carrera Dato 12 watches. I had the chance to take a good look at
: them and even try them on my wrist. Just at that point I began
: to really appreciate this model, and I fell for it.

Since
: that day the Carrera Dato 12 was in my mind, not very prominent
: but it was always there.

: And then, at the end of last august, it just happened, very natural
: and unforced. As I would describe it as “various things that
: happened at approximately thesame time and with benefits for
: every party involved”, a unique situation. At this time I
: would like to give big thanks (again) to Pär Wallström and
: Paul Gavin. I was able to obtain this Carrera Dato 12 thanks to
: them. We managed to work out an incredible trade which created
: benefits for all three of us, difficult to believe but the
: truth. We all had one watch we wanted to sell or trade....we all
: badly wanted to buy another specific watch.

What happened
: was really a perfect example of what watch collecting should be
: all about: Passion and Honesty!

: I’ll end this boring story here and show you some pictures
: from here...these were the pictures I received from previous
: owner;
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: So far so good...I was really looking forward to receive it.
: Pictures were very promising but you never know untill you have
: it in your own hands. I’m sure every collector knows what
: I’m talking about. When opening the package I immediately saw
: the dial and hands were cosmetically near perfect. Usually the
: dial is a problem with these Carrera Dato 12 watches. I
: was over the moon because the dial was still perfect - a real
: pearl!

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: I had also pretty good confidence that I was able to make some very
: nice improvments to the case, still with keeping originality and
: authenticity in mind. Here are some pictures before the
: case-service;

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: The movement itself, the Valjoux 723, was not working at all.
: Ofcourse I knew this. For me these movements are a real pleasure
: to work on, only sourcing spare parts can be difficult
: sometimes. It didn’t take me long before I started working on
: it...When I took the dial off I was almost shocked as the
: movement was really soaking in oil. For the movement itself this
: can do no harm at all...but for the dial itself and also for the
: day and month disc this could have been really bad. Lucky enough
: I was able to clean them without damaging the font. Those were
: really breathtaking moments...just take a look at the day disc
: soaking in oil...shocking!!

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: Also some other parts were needed;

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: So, after solving some technical issues with this Valjoux
: 723 movement and some serious case-service this is the result
: – enjoy the pictures - no more text from now ;-)

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: With my best regards from Belgium,
: Abel.