For a long time I thought that the first modern Monaco with the Black Dial/ White Sub-dial layout was the Calibre 12 model released in 2009- the "Black McQueen"

CAW2114- 2009

Turns out that there was a limited edition "Black McQueen" 5 years earlier, made for the 50th anniversary of Sincere Watch, a Hong Kong based watch distributor. The model is based on the Calibre 17 Steve McQueen Monaco, but swaps the blue dial for black.

CW2115- 2004

(credit)

I remember when the first of these cropped up a few years ago the thinking was that they were fakes, with the dials repainted black. Goes to show that while it's always good to be skeptical about uncommon watches (as many are fakes), there are still lots of "unknown" variations out there.

 

Nice catch. The black dial would look great in anthracite. One thing that drives me mad is the cream colored sub-dials, instead of using a whiter shade. The 40th anniversary has a much nicer (paler) white than the one used in all the rest. Just a thought.

 

Nice find!