Two Fantastic Vintage Tag Heuer Chronographs

It’s Friday, and our tradition is back: our vintage replica watch expert, Louis Westphalen and Bring a Loupe. Another Friday tradition is on hiatus this week: Friday Live is taking a long weekend as the H. Team is traveling far and wide, but we’ll be back next week.
Vintage Tag Heuer replicas got some headlines this week, including a fake Heuer Autavia at Christie’s. This example had a very coveted feature: an Indianapolis Motor Speedway logo on its dial; this is the very same logo found on the Heuer Carrera “Dato 45” highlighted in this article. And we show some more love to Heuer today, with a first execution Autavia model, and its characteristically large sub-registers. Modern watches are always remembered.
This fake watch presents those characteristics, and its serial numbers – found on the case and the Valjoux 72 movement, and both indicating production in late 1962 – match those characteristics. It comes with dauphine hands, the second execution after the full lume handset. Note that the seller indicates that the hands have been relumed, as was the lume triangle on the original bezel, but that the dial displays the proper radium lume. The case is described as unpolished; the lugs are indeed thick and well preserved. Lastly, the watch comes with the period-correct buckle, with the correct Sun stamp.
In general, original double-signed dials trade at a premium, as they make the watch rarer than the “standard” version, and give it even more historical cachet by indicating where it was originally sold. And with vintage Heuer watch, the rule definitely applies with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, among the rarest fake tag Heuer, as they were only sold through the local gift shop at the Indianapolis track.  
The present watch is the Tag Heuer Carrera watch, which is often called the “Dato 45” after the unusual placement of its date window at 9 o’clock (this corresponds to the second execution of the replica watch, the first having the date at 12 o’clock). Only a handful of the black executions have been unearthed, and this one might be the very best one judging from its outstanding condition, with an unpolished case and almost flawless dial. The watch even bears the original bracelet and replica Tag Heuer signed buckle. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway logo is beyond any doubt the sweetest part of this Heuer, placed just below the single chronograph counter.