Heuer. A Very Rare and Unusual Stainless Steel Tonneau-Shaped Automatic Chronograph Wristwatch with Date

The present Autavia reference 1163 is distinguished by the black and white dial, red accents and striped indexes.

For even the most advanced experts on Heuer chronographs, this watch may be a surprising discovery. One of the earliest automatic Autavias by serial number, it is a missing link bridging the divide between the Chronomatic Autavias and the standard production “Mark 2” Autavias that followed. We could therefore perhaps call it a “Mark 1.5” Autavia.

The present watch features large and distinctive red plots at the hour markers in addition to a white central second hand. To the best of our knowledge, only one other Autavia in this “missing link” Mark 1.5 format with large red plots has ever come to the market. Furthermore, it matches three early advertisements for the automatic Autavias showing the same watch.

This Autavia is a notable discovery as a “missing link” in the earliest range of Automatic Autavias and an important watch in the history of Heuer chronographs.