French-made Heuer Reference 1589B

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Yep, that was me. Someone mentioned to me it might be a French market design which led me here. Buyer beware as it's likely to end up back on eBay soon.

Unfortunately it’s like the guys above said. Not original. Movement and case certainly, rest is questionable.
 
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Not 100% sure Alex. As we get later in the 1970s, there does seem to be more regional variation, with some models only sold in certain markets. These French Heuers almost certainly come from the Besançon area (certainly the early 1000 series is from there), which is less than 100kms from the "Watch Valley" in Switzerland.

My guess is that in the late 70s Heuer was scrambling to do everything it could to survive, and so trying out lower cost models like these made sense.
It sounds right 😀.
I thought this article that confirm waht you said: https://www.lesrhabilleurs.com/2018/09/heuer-chronographe-1611-made-in-france/.
You can translate it by using chrome. The most important part says approximately something like that:

"Heuer was in need of money and decided to use a french production line "Georges Monnin & co" to produce its first diving watch. This new model should be an opportunity to get out of the crisis. After some reasearches about Monnin familly watchmakers, I (the autor) can affirm that their workshop was located at the city of Charquemont in the department of Doubs, not far from the swiss border. A group of 4 compagnies was created to produce movement using automatic production lines. An opportunity for Heuer"

" En manque de capacités financières et afin d’atténuer le risque, Heuer décide de faire appel à une chaine de production française, Georges Monnin & Cie, pour produire sa première montre de plongée, montre qui doit servir au rebond en pleine crise. Après quelques recherches sur la famille d’horlogers Monnin, je peux précisément avancer que leur atelier se trouvait dans la ville de Charquemont, dans le Doubs, à la frontière suisse. Un conglomérat de quatre entreprises s’était alors formé pour produire des mouvements ensemble en mécanisant la production. Une aubaine pour Heuer."

I saw this kind of watch on a small ads website.

Regards

Ps : I think Heuer made other products outside of swiss. I saw few microsplits or electronic devices made in asia or US.
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