Nice watch, congratulations.

As Jeff says, it's a Carrera rather than an Autavia. To be specific, it's a 110.255 - that's the model number that is engraved on the caseback, and is based on the watch number 3 in the catalogue shot below. This is one of the last Carreras to use the Calibre 12 movement and is quite a fitting swansong for that movement/model combination (the Autavia experts might put me straight, but I think various Autavias carried on using Cal 12s for a few years longer?).

The alterations seem to be limited to the dial, moving the Heuer shield to above the date window, losing the Carrera name and adding the Bahrain emblem. The dial finish itself looks to be the same as the champagne dial in the "base" 110.255 - I agree with Jeff, it's an elegant-looking dial and still looks well-balanced with the Bahrain emblem.

Heuer were never as meticulous in record-keeping as, say, Omega so it's difficult to come up with any conclusive results for production numbers, even for normal production runs never mind special editions like this. The previous thread Jeff links to has a similar watch with serial number 377307, 120 lower than yours but the numbers may have been mixed among the normal production runs too, so we can't realistically derive production numbers from this - though it is a helpful clue!

So, enough about the watch, some thoughts on the rest of the story, which, to me at least, is as interesting as the watch itself!

The case back is engraved with "Heuer Official Timekeeper At The Olympic Games 1980". That was before the Summer and Winter Olympics were staggered, so there were both Summer and Winter Olympics in 1980, in Moscow and Lake Placid respectively. I believe Heuer was the official timekeeper for both, so that makes sense for either event. However, not too surprisingly, Bahrain were not taking part in the Winter Olympics at that time so that only leaves us with the Moscow Olympics.

Now, the 1980 Moscow Olympics is famous, or perhaps infamous, for one main reason. Following on from the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan the previous year, some 60-odd countries boycotted the summer games as a protest against the continued Russian presence in Afghanistan.

And guess what? Bahrain was one of the countries that joined in the boycott.

The US confirmed their boycott on March 21st 1980, with the opening ceremony due on the 19th of July. Other countries signed up to the boycott subsequently, though I don't know how rapidly or otherwise Bahrain joined - it would be interesting to try and find out.

At this point, it would probably be fair to assume that Heuer had already completed however many commemorative watches Bahrain had contracted for. So they now have a number of special edition Carreras to commemorate an event for a nation that would no longer be partaking in the event!

This is where it would get most interesting but also where it's hardest to investigate, unless someone knows someone who was involved at the time.

I guess there are a few options:

- Bahrain took the watches and presented them to the members of their Olympic delegation who would have got them had they not boycotted the Olympics

- Bahrain took the watches and disposed of them in some other way

- Heuer retained the watches and disposed of them somehow (less likely, I feel, the watches are probably more desirable in Bahrain at the time)

I don't think any of this means the watches aren't genuine at all - I believe they are but that they've led an even more interesting life than might have been expected of them! It would be really interesting if owners of these would be able to share their experience of how they found them, if that doesn't involve revealing private, business or even state secrets ;)

All in all, a great watch Mac and thanks for stimulating an interesting discussion!

Mark