Heuer Autavia 73663 arabic Military KAF Kenyan Air Force “Shauntavia”

WRIST ICONS brings you a perfect military Heuer Autavia reference 73663 with Arabic radial dial for the Kenyan Air Force (KAF) also known as the  “Shauntavia”. This is a very nice looking special military Heuer. This one is soo good looking that I would immediately sign in for service!

All the Autavias to ever come with numerals instead of applied indexes have a military past. Two were adopted by the German army (73633 BUNDESWEHR) and the well-known 1550 SG often seen with the 3H dial.  And the two others by Kenya's Air Force. The KAF Autavia most seen is reference 741603 which is a  two-register chronograph, with a date at 6 o'clock and red accents on the hands and dial. The second KAF Heuer what we have here is the three register manual wound Autavia with the beloved orange accents reminiscent of the famous Orange Boy.

Both references have elongated Arabic numerals. They were made for the Kenyan Air Force this may have been a special military specification for increased legibility in the dark. According to Alexandre Gothbi of Phillips these watches were produced in very small numbers, it is believed that no more than 250 examples were ever delivered with a small portion that were not issued. Further we have read on the internet,  that Heuer does not take ownership of these watches, with no references in their database so they won't confirm how many or for how long they were made.

Reference 73663 was introduced in the early 1970s, with a three-register dial layout as the originals from the 1960s. The dials were in 3 versions, a panda, reverse panda and all black. This particular 73663 Shauntavia has the reverse panda lay out. There are at least seven variations of dial in the 73663 ref: a white panda one (Siffert-wise), a black one with red accents (Viceroy-wise), an all black dial with green arabic numerals (Bund), this KAF one, a black dial with grey sub-dials and orange accents (Villeneuve), a black one with applied lume stripes (IDF), and a rare black dial with white subdials (another military-like dial). Anyway are great and rare watches, all of them are in the range 199xxx to 202xxx (so all enclosed in approx 3000 serial, with other ref in this range). This KAF has been made in approximately 200 samples only as the caseback marking "KAF-XXX" (where xxx is a progressive serial) switches towards the later 741.603 GMT at approximately 200, in addition to other few non assigned samples. Source (@raticosa)

These watches are nicknamed “Shauntavia” named after the collector Shaun Wainstein who first published an article about these watches on the Heuer forum called onthedash. Jeff , the forum’s founder then named these watches Shauntavias.

As with all of our pre-owned watches this watch comes with a full 12 month WRIST ICONS warranty that will be invoked from the day of purchase. Please check our website to have a look at the high resolution pictures on a macro level. You will see every detail at its best.

• Brand: Heuer
• Model: Military Autavia 73663 KAF
• Year: circa 1974
• Case: polished and brushed tonneau shaped stainless steel case with a three-body construction: a steel case, a snap on interchangeable black graduated bi-directional revolving minute hour (MH) bezel with a good sharp resistance and an affirmative "Click", a screwed-down case back. The inside of the caseback is  signed with HEUER, LEONIDAS SA SWISS SSTAINLESS STEEL . The outside of the caseback is signed with KAF-152 (number 155 was sold by Christie’s in 2017). Meaning KAF for Kenyan Air Force and 152 for the individual number. The case is finished with straight lapidated lugs, and round faceted chronograph buttons and a stainless steel Heuer signed winding crown.
• Dimensions case. 43mm in diameter (excluding crown & pushers) 47.5 mm lug tip to lug tip with 20mm lug spacing.
• Glass: plexiglass
• Dial: black dial with HEUER logo and AUTAVIA written above the logo. The dial has elongated painted Arabic numerals for the hours which have tritium. There are three subsidiary guilloche silvered registers for the chronograph and seconds which contrast to the matte black main dial. At the border of the dial there is a scale consisting of orange 5 minute  markers, seconds markers and 1/5th seconds divisions. The dial has orange  hands with tritium material in the center.
• Movement: manual  wind movement caliber Valjoux 7736, the movement is rhodium plated,  has 17 jewels, a straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance, shock absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring
• Strap: offered with a genuine Heuer Corfam perforated rally type racing strap with a genuine Heuer signed buckle.
• Condition: Very good condition
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