Heuer Diver 935.112 Ladies ‘Transitional Phantom’

Heuer Diver 935.112, Ladies 28mm stainless steel case ‘Transitional Phantom’

I like a good mystery, and researching a watch.. but this is a strange one… 935.112 doesn’t exist…

My first thought was the caseback has been changed, as this is clearly the wrong model number.. but then the strangest thing.. 935.112 doesn’t seem to exist anywhere. I’ve checked all catalogues and index pages, there are 93x.xxx series that relates to the 3000 series, there is a 934.xxx and a 936.xxx, but 935 doesn’t appear to exist. Now that is weird. Not only does this watch have this weird number, but 935 was skipped by Heuer (& TAG Heuer) entirely. Why?

So, I presume it’s a 980.008, but it doesn’t have a lollipop hour hand, and the dial is different.. so it could be a 980.038, which was the ‘budget’ version with a plated case.. but this watch has a stainless steel case. Now, clearly at this point I’m thinking it’s a franken, made up of a case from a 980.008, and a dial & handset from a 980.038.. but that doesn’t explain the caseback. The stampings are all as they should be, the numerals the same shape, depth and size as other Heuers, so a ‘fake stamped’ case isn’t the answer – in any case, that would have to be some insane coincidence to stamp a number that was skipped by Heuer.

I’m starting to think that this is, or was a watch that was released as a 980.038 replacement under a new model number, with a SS case, but it’s life was short-lived, the TAG takeover stopping it in it’s tracks. It’s the only explanation I can think of that makes any sense.  The dial/handset from the early 980.008’s were replaced by the dial/handset from the 980.038 in the later TAG Heuer models, (Mercedes hands, shorter noon triangle), so this could be a crossover, a relic of the switchover, that never made it into catalogues.

If anyone can shed any more light on this phantom Heuer, please post your comments.

Lists showing the jump from serial numbers 934 to 936..

1985/6
http://www.calibre11.com/tag-heuer-catalogues/?album=1&gallery=4

1987
http://www.calibre11.com/tag-heuer-catalogues/?album=1&gallery=39

The bottom photo shows it before it had a well earned deep clean and tidy up – showing 25+ years of grime that was lurking under the bezel. It looks worse than it was, a good clean and a light polish, and it came up looking great. I even treated it to a NOS 14mm tropic strap. In some photos, it is shown together with an 11630 Autavia to get a sense of scale, it really is tiny.