Ron - these pictures are owned by Stepan, as he and I tried to make a deal 18 months ago.
He wanted a fair price, I was concerned with case condition and "originiality" due to the contrasting dial.
Having since learned, this is one of those I kick by butt monthly for not buying

Hope he does not mind me posting his pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41866835@N07/3859288315/

Brook

: It's a good question Ron!

: First off, those watches in the catalogues are 3647s, aka Carrera
: 45s, so have the Valjoux 92 movement rather than a 7730. And
: that's quite important overall for our contrasting dial story.

: Winding back to 1964, when the Carrera was introduced, the
: overriding mantra in its design was simplicity. The contemporary
: Autavias had a more elaborate dial with arabic numerals and
: dauphine hands (though these were being phased out by the
: Carrera launch) and, yes, contrasting dials. Now, it's a
: question for Jack Heuer whether the Carrera had matching dial
: and registers for ultimate readability, but it seems a
: deliberate choice compared to the Autavia. It's also debatable
: whether the eye is drawn more to contrast registers or if they
: are a distraction - certainly by the second generation of
: Carrera, at least 4 out of 5 Carreras did have contrast
: registers, so perhaps they'd changed their minds or maybe style
: was becoming more of a consideration with the advent of the 70s.

: Now, moving forward to somewhere around 1966 and the introduction
: of the 45 Dato, we see Heuer still sticking with its monochrome
: dials for the Carrera. For the first execution, at least. Then,
: all of a sudden, the second execution comes out and the
: black-dialled version (and only the black-dialled version, the
: silver one has a silver register) has a white register:

:
:

: So that sets a precedent, but Heuer doesn't seem to do anything
: with it for another couple of years.

: Then, somewhere around 1969, the Carrera goes a pretty
: comprehensive revision. The Carrera 45 is dropped and replaced
: with the 30, dial markers and hands are changed to versions with
: added detailing. And this is also the point at which we start to
: see the contrast dials appearing, on both the Carrera 12 and the
: 12 Dato:

:
:
:
:

: It's possible that the Datos had started to have contrast dials a
: little earlier in fact, but the very earliest ones didn't. I
: think it's fairly conclusive that the first Carreras with
: contrast dials were Datos, whether it be 12s or 45s.

: Every now and again, we do see a Carrera 12 with contrast registers
: in first execution.

:
:

: Some of these looks like redials, but this one looks genuine - it
: may well be a prototype for what Heuer were planning to
: introduce more widely in the second execution. Certainly, the
: vast majority of contrast dials we see are second execution.
: Interestingly, though, they don't appear in catalogues - only
: open to special order perhaps? I'd wager not, since there seems
: to be enough about that they're not ultra rare.

: You'll note that I've been talking about 12s mainly, not the 45s
: and 30s (the two register variants) you asked about. And that's
: because we hardly ever see them with contrast registers. We DO,
: however, see them in a catalogue, unlike the 12s:

:
:

: Ignore the first two, those are economy models, it's the third one
: we're after, the 7753 T. So I think we're getting close to an
: answer for our question. Two dial first generation Carreras only
: seemed to have contrast dials with this model and its close
: sister the 7753 D and then only for a limited time - both were
: introduced with single coloured dials and had a contrast
: configuration only at the end of their lives, for under a year.
: And selling against the brand spanking new Chronomatic-powered
: 1153.

: So the simple answer seems to be we see so few contrast register 2
: dial first generation Carreras because very few made it out of
: the door. We did see one on here a while back, from Stepan, but
: I can't remember seeing any in the metal. Would be interested in
: hearing from anyone who has!