Heuer Carrera 73653N, my latest timepiece!

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Ok Guys and Gals, Friday at last, and a lovely weekend ahead!

So it is time for another watch that I manage to win on an auction!
This time I have a maybe not so common reference, and I have been looking for it for some time.

It is a Carrera 73653 N, and the N mean Noir (black), but in true life it is more blue/purple depending on the light.
And if I have learned, and understood everything correctly- this is the first execution?
These are of course out there, but often with subdials and tachy-scales that have spottings/defects etc.
It has the Valjoux 7736 movement, a manual wound movement.
The serial nr places the watch around 1970.

This watch was on a local auction house, with very crapy pictures, so I had to ask for more.
But the ones I received were even worse…🤨
The crystal was very scratched, but looking at the pictures (for a couple of hours....), the dial looked very very promising.

The case was not pristine, it had its dings, scratches and marks.
And the top pusher was missing, hopefully I would find one if I won the biding.
No pictures of the movement.

To sum it all up, I really like the watch, and saw the potential with it!
WOOOP WOOOP on the Watchometer!

We were three people that went head to head at the end of the auction, but I managed to win the bidding!!
I might have got a bit of an auction fever…but WTFluff!

I received the watch after a few days, and started to look closely at it, and also started taking pictures.
And TBH, the condition of the case was a little bit more worse than I thought, and it was very dirty!

I knew from previous posts here on the Forum and from other sources,
that Abel Court from Heuertime was the Guy who knew his way with vintage Heuers.
So I sent him an e-mail about my watch and what I needed help with.
I received a reply from him the day after, and we had a few chats back and forth regarding the watch, this only took a couple of days.

I shipped the watch to Abel, and I got a confirmation that he had got the watch, so part one done!
😅

Abel started with a full disassemble, and an assessment of what was needed.
There were a few details that needed to be replaced, and he also had a vintage pusher for me - Lucky Me!!
The crystal was far too gone, so there had to be a new one.
The movement was bone dry, and probably never serviced, or serviced a very looooong time ago.


He also suggested that I maybe should go for a complete refurbishing.
I actually posted to a few Forum friends here about this, but all of them voted for a ”keep as”!
So thanks Guys!!
👍👍👍

After that Abel had done the deep cleaning - he also voted for a ”keep as”!
Very Happy with this!!

I received current updates from Abel with detailed pictures and information, from the start till the end.
He even did a couple of videos for me!

And it took him roughly one and a half month to do this,
this is really really amazing compared to other watchmakers.

He gets Top Grades from me!!

On to the pictures:

The first pictures are when I just received the watch.

The second batch are after some work with Polywatch, and a very gentle cleaning.
And now the dial can be correctly assessed - YAY!!

The third batch are from Abel during his work.

And the forth are when I have the watch back home in Sunny Sweden!!

The final result after Abels work has gone beyond my expectations, and the watch has a lovely (for me) vintage feeling!

Enjoy my journey, Abels work and the pictures!
And of course - YAMAS, CHEERS and SKÅL!!



Received the watch:




After Polywatch:





Abels Amazing work:




Sunny Sweden!!

 
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That's an amazing pick-up! Congratulations!
 
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That's an amazing pick-up! Congratulations!
Thanks Mate!
Wearing it now, and I can´t stop looking....
I am a Speedy freak, but this one is really fun to wear!
 
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That's a beauty!
You can judge the case harshly from the before pictures but on the wrist it looks amazing, if you can get your eyes away from that stunning dial!
I'm always a bit scared of vintage blue dials and the damage that lume plots can do to them.
You have the best of both worlds with a black dial that has turned blue 😎👍
 
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Good looking watch. I have being eyeing some Heuers lately. It seemed to have lost the brushing on the left side. Came that way?
 
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That's a beauty!
You can judge the case harshly from the before pictures but on the wrist it looks amazing, if you can get your eyes away from that stunning dial!
I'm always a bit scared of vintage blue dials and the damage that lume plots can do to them.
You have the best of both worlds with a black dial that has turned blue 😎👍
Thanks!
It was the condition of the dial that made go one with this one, but assessing it with that scratched crystal was a PITA!
 
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Good looking watch. I have being eyeing some Heuers lately. It seemed to have lost the brushing on the left side. Came that way?
There is some faint brushing left, and Abel did not do any polishing to the case...

I found a few with nice cases during my hunt!
But not so nice dials, so always a balance between "what is the most important"!

 
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Lovely write up, thank you! 😎

Last time I sent a watch to Abel I had to wait quite a long time before he could work on it, did he accept your watch right away?

Yours is indeed a first excecution, my second execution says Hi!

Edited:
 
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Lovely write up, thank you! 😎

Last time I sent a watch to Abel I had to wait quite a long time before he could work on it, did he accept your watch right away?

Yours is indeed a first excecution, my second execution says Hi!

What a lovely Carrera you got there!

And thanks for the nice comments!
I did not ask Abel about any waiting time, and he actually started on the watch a few weeks after it arrived!
Very pleased with this, I am used to watchmakers with a bit longer timeframe...😀