Noting dating features such as dials, cases, hands and movements is critical when researching vintage watches as, although some claim to the contrary, there was often plenty of method employed by Heuer when producing their watches. Perhaps on the vintage Heuer Carrera, where there were so many different dials used, or on some of the 1163 Autavia variants there are not always "tight" serial batches for each and every dial but even then there are still hard and fast rules. However, on the 1960s screw back case Autavia the information points to a very strict production run of models that can be treated as more or less "gospel". 

As you can see in the table below, the various executions have their own tight batches of serial numbers starting with the earliest found 3646 to date (48653) and ending with the last noted 2446 GMT serial 100129. At no point in this series should you expect to find random dials added to random cases, in fact it all makes complete sense and there was even a coherent evolution of hands, pushers, crowns and movements during the lifecycle of this series which can be found detailed in the relevant reference Heuer collector books (see the link at the bottom of the article).

Reference                        

1962     4865x - 488xx     

3646 1st execution all lume hands  

1962     4885x - 493xx     

2446 1st execution all lume hands  

A. There is some overlap of hands in batch 1 of the 1st execution but you will not find all lume hands past this point, just that you may find steel hands earlier in the batch 1. Batch 2 used a variety of steel dauphine hands, with differing lume widths.

B. I estimate that fewer than 150 all lume hands exist for each ref. 

C. (0) A small batch of 3646 1st executions with red chrono hands.

D. The 2446 A&F Seafarer is possibly the rarest production Heuer with all five examples being within 17 serials of each other and a maximum batch of "fewer than 30".

E. in 1965 there was a very short run of Transitional Autavia, featuring a bespoke "no lume" wide bezel and a thick lug case (with no bevelled edges). 

F. (1) In 1966 left over 1st and 2nd execution dials were placed into the thin bezel case in 84/85xxx ranges for both the 3646 and 2446 reference. These dials had the Radium removed and replaced by Tritium and were then normally signed "Swiss T". A variety of hands were used but never the wide dauphine or all lume hand style. Values of such watches are more closely aligned to the 3rd execution rather than the 1st execution, albeit at a premium.

G. (2) The 3646 Indianapolis Motor Speedway dials appear to be in two batches, 84xxx and 88/89xxx but it is too soon to be definitive.

H. (2)&(3)&(3.5) It is also too soon to be definitive about the tachy dial 3646 and 2446 although they tend to appear in the Andretti and Rindt cases and should have hands that stop before the scale begins.

I. (3.5) The 4th execution 2446 as the final execution would be expected to appear in the final batch 89xxx - 961xx.    

To read more about the most special vintage Heuer grail chronographs from the 1960s click on the link below to preview the Heuer Superstars book, filled with beautiful photographs and important collector info on the best of the best.