Haslinger Auction - Some Highlights

Here are my highlights...First up, lot 98, the PVD Monaco - £48,000 (yep fortyeight thousand pounds!)
Next, lot 94, Chronomatic Siffert Autavia - £30,000
And finally my favourite - the Tranny, a snip at - £8,400

Oh yeah, the Monaco from the Metro in a previous post raised £18,000...

Nearly K/O

The biggest event in the Heuer calendar kicks off in a little over 3 minutes :-)

Made the Metro...Arno's auction.

Wish I was there! Just for the record, this is a 1133B, the same model as the one worn by McQueen, not one of his originals.

Mine is here by the way.

124 Spider - Door trim and front wings...

So door trim first. Spotted this on ebay. For not a lot more than a new set of rubbers I get the trim also. Handy as the rear trim on one side was missing :-)Secondly, I spoke to Guy Moerenhout this morning about a set of front wings and these could be arriving soon :-)

The best Monaco Heuer didn't make...

Black dial with white subs...Another great effect from the transitional dial!

124 Spider - New seats in at last!

So that's what was is in the box!Old seat rails... 8mm hole here.

...fit perfectly onto the new seats :-)Essential tool for tightening the front bolts.

I found the best way to put the seats in was - hang the front allen (hexagon) bolts through their correct holes in the seat rails with the seats at the back end of their travel and line them up over the captive nuts before loosely attaching.  Then push the seats forward on the rails to get the allen bolts in at the back. These ones are easy enough to get pretty tight using a normal allen key.

The front ones are hard to access though and I used the above 'multi-angled' key with a ball type end.

Looking good!

124 Spider - New seats!

BF Torino 960
Arrived today in a bl**dy great big box from Germany :-)
Too dark to open so sitting in the back of the landrover tonight.
Looking forward to fitting them in the morning so fingers crossed for a dry day!

Something a bit different. Rolex 16800. Not for Sale, again!

Here's something a bit different. I put it away for a while, forget about it, think of selling it, wear it for a week and practically have to wrench it off again!!
It's addictive...
This is the last of the matte dial subs and being a late 80's number, it's the last of the last!
The 16800 is known as a transitional model (what is it with me and transitional models?!:-)) as it bridges the gap between the old 1680, plastic crystal (sexy-plexi), matte dial etc and the proper crystal, non-tritium lume, white gold surrounds to come.
Nice crema markers and bezel dot.
Doesn't miss a beat and utterly reliable.
Yes Rolex are mass produced, perceived to be worn by attention seekers and those that should know better, but...due to the constant revisions and minor detail changes it's still possible to find something with a bit of uniqueness.
So, not for sale, again, well for now anyway :-)
Actually what about a nice 1680 sub...

New iPhone 4 = cool camera!

Joseph Siffert, July 7, 1936 – October 24, 1971

A Couple of Siffert 3-6-9-12 Subdial Adverts...

First edition, early Chronomatic 3-6-9-12 dial with horizontal lines across the hour markers.
Non-Chronomatic main dial, 3-6-9-12 hour sub-dial but with same 1st edition hour markers (ad printed end of 1969). Note the pointed 'V' in Autavia and the placement of 'AUTOMATIC' below the subdials.
And below we have a later style, again with same 3-6-9-12 hour sub-dial but with next generation hour markers.
Note this time the placement of 'AUTOMATIC' in line with the subdials.I guess this makes my 'Schmitz' style 3-6-9-12 a transitional model immediately following the 'Chronomatic' version.

3-6-9-12 Siffert

3-6-9-12 Siffert, early Chronomatic style hour markers, steel hands, 14* serial number, 1163 Schmitz type case, early Cal11 movement, original 3/69 G/F bracelet.Note the flattened base of the 'V' in 'AUTAVIA', the position of 'AUTOMATIC' above the base of the subdials and the angled facets between the lugs and the brushed case-top.

Schmitz Type Cases - the same, but different.

While cleaning up a new arrival I noticed something strange...
The case on the right in each photo is serial No. 14* and the case on the left is a 27*.
Spot the difference? The 14* has a bearing at the 7 O'clock position under the bezel.
Does this help in any way to settle the discussion that these cases, the 14*, were around in the early days of the Automatic Autavias?
I hope so.

Actually another thought...this 14* Siffert came with a '69 G/F bracelet with HLD end-pieces which match the case perfectly - no spearing your palm fitting them :-)

Monaco 1133B Steve McQueen - correct hands.

Replaced the service hands (narrow lume stripe) with a set of genuine originals - way better :-)

510.501 - more pics...

Still really pleased with this watch. Had it on since Friday and it hasn't missed a beat or more than a few seconds.
Before it arrived I expected it to be a lot smaller and lighter and really this buy was another gamble.
It's prompted a bit of reading into the Lemania 5100 engine inside.
Check out the 24hr dial at the top also.
I haven't opened it yet and I'm not expecting anything as beautiful or refined as a Cal 11 but it sounds like this is a true workhorse diesel. It feels as robust as the reputation that preceeds it.
The bracelet's got what looks like a TAG shield logo (doesn't say TAG) on the clasp but comes with a spare link with an 'Heuer'only label attached.
The papers that accompany the watch are dated 1986 so that ties in with the TAG/Heuer transition period. This is the PVD version that has lasted well and even has the signed crown.
Looks and feels absolutely bullet-proof.
A nice extra was the original box and instruction set :-)

Tuesday 28th - Update: Amazing. watch has gained only around 10 seconds since Friday! AndyO...

And now for something completely different - Heuer 510.501 just arrived.

Really impressed.
Nice heavy watch in great condition including box and papers :-)
Another iPhone pic - more later...

Man, those hands are nice :-)

On a very jerky 07:00 Edinburgh to Glasgow Express, IPhone 3GS:-)

Patience finally pays off!

So finally I got a set of correct hands for my transitional Monaco :-)

This is how I received the watch over 18 months ago.
Yeah its a bit rough round the edges and the dial's a bit crazy but I love it and it's now my lucky watch.
So with this in mind I really wanted to do what I could to bring it back to life.
Things like missing blocking lever, dodgy glass and terrible case were all pretty easily resolved but it was the hands that were the most difficult problem for me.

So 1st stage was to replace the main hands. These took a bit of time to find but still weren't correct.I think they were service hands and the red sweep hand was too long.
I then managed to find a new set of sub-dial hands and a more appropriate set of hour, minute, sweep hands.
And finally, after losing count of how many false leads I've followed, thanks to a top OTDer we have the steel, square ended hands :-)
Thanks Abel!

The other McQueen!

Lightning! Ka-Chow!

11630T new bezel insert and a cleanup!