SPECIFICHE
Amazing and very rare Heuer Autavia military chronograph ref. 73663 KAF “Kenyan Air Force”, steel case, manual-winding Valjoux 7736 caliber, from 1970s.
Steel case measuring 42mm
Screw-down caseback
Lunetta originale
Cristallo originale
Corona e pulsanti originali
Manual-winding Valjoux 7736 movement inside
ANALISI
Edouard Heuer founded the company that bears his name in 1860, focusing from the beginning on the production of high-precision instruments. Even then, in Saint-Imier, Heuer chronometers were renowned for their high reliability. Soon, with the advent and spread of automobiles and airplanes, Heuer specialized in the production of onboard instruments in the early 1900s. One of the first publications featuring a nascent Heuer wrist chronograph with a 30-minute counter at 6 o’clock dates back to 1916. It was a period of great exploration into the possibilities of micromechanics, and the race for the wrist chronograph was an exciting adventure, involving not only Heuer and its subsidiary Rose, but also Breitling and Ralco (sub-brands of Movado). After the rush for the manually wound wrist chronograph of the early 1910s, more than 50 years later, a long march began again that led to the idea of the wrist chronograph powered by a self-winding caliber. In 1969, three rivals faced off: Zenith with its El Primero, Seiko with its caliber 6139, and the Heuer-Breitling-Buren-Dubois-
Against this backdrop, in 1962, Heuer launched its famous “Autavia” model (with a hand-wound caliber and counters at three and two o’clock). This name had been used by Ed Heuer since 1933 (registration number 80370) to sign the onboard instruments of automobiles (“AUT-“) and airplanes (“-AVIA”). The name was renewed again on June 2, 1953, with the number 146590, by Ed Heuer & CO. S.A. and was poised to be forever remembered as one of the most iconic names in watchmaking history. From 1962 to the present, the Autavia has been a symbol of motor racing, but also of flight, with its unique military applications.
It is in this context that this extremely rare Heuer Autavia assigned to the “KAF” (Kenyan Air Force), reference 73663, fits in. It is equipped with the manually wound Valjoux 7736 chronograph caliber, with three subdials (instead of two on the caliber 11/12 Buren) and without the date complication.
This military assignment is extremely rare, as Heuer is believed to have produced a batch of approximately 250 examples for the Kenyan Air Force in the mid-1970s. The Kenyan Air Force was officially established in June 1964 and from 1940 onwards was under the control of the British Royal Air Force, which supplied the KAF with trainers, transport aircraft, and fighter-bombers. From 1964 onwards, the KAF acquired increasing autonomy and received reinforcements from many countries between the 1960s and 1980s, including France, Romania, Canada, and, most notably, Great Britain and the United States. The Kenyan Air Force’s operational parameters positioned it, by the early 1980s, as the leading air force in the sub-Saharan region, integrating a triple aeronautical capability (combat and training), which constituted its distinctive pillars in terms of effectiveness. This consolidated economic and military preeminence was complemented by the provision of military watches for pilots.
To make it easier for pilots to read the dials in flight, Heuer developed a layout that replaced the baton indices typical of its Autavia model with tritium-filled Arabic numerals. The dial of this incredible and rare chronograph adopts this unusual configuration (along with the ref. 11630 and ref. 741.603). The white minute track stands out against the black surface of the dial and chromatically connects with the three subdials. The Heuer signature and the Autavia name are at 12 o’clock. The hands are broad, pencil-shaped with a yellow-orange frame and filled with luminescent material; the chronograph seconds hand is yellow-orange and triangular in shape. The dial is framed by a rotating aluminum bezel with a black insert that indicates the hours and minutes.
The steel case is tonneau-shaped, typical of the roaring ’70s. Its upper surface is finely satin-finished to leave room for a polished bevel on the outer edges. Unlike the reference that houses the “in-house” caliber n.12, which has the crown at 9 o’clock, this ref. 73663 canonically has both the crown and the bump pushers at 3 o’clock.
Under the caseback stamped with the “KAF-68” assignment, is the manually wound Valjoux 7736 chronograph caliber. It was produced from 1969 until 1978; it is 31.3mm in diameter, has a beat frequency of 18,000 A/h and a power reserve of 45 hours.
