Solving the Mystery of the Early fake TAG Heuer “Kingon” Autavias

It’s been a mystery that has intrigued serious Heuer collectors for years: what was the origin of the early (“first execution”) two-register Autavia that says “Kingon” on the dial and caseback instead of Heuer? There are 6 (or possibly 7) known examples of this unusual watch, which is essentially a variant on the first execution fake TAG Heuer Autavia (like the one sold by Antiquorum went for $25,000 in September). Well, here we’ve got the scoop on just what’s behind that Kingon signature and exactly what you should know about these rare early Autavias. replica watches

Over the years, collectors have come up with a number of theories to explain these unusual Autavias. But, after some extensive searching, I believe I have solved the mystery. It appears that Kingon was a small mid-century Swiss watch company. Just take a look at this ETA 1093 movement and dial combo on eBay, which looks to me like it dates to the 1950s:

The fact is that around this time there were tons of Swiss watch brands that you’ve likely never heard of. Many companies were started and used ébauche movements bought from the few main movement suppliers, trying to somehow strike it big in the post-war boom. At the same time, some larger companies were trying to develop different brands for a variety of marketing and trade reasons. This is no different than replica watches what many brands are doing today: design distinctive watches, but use ébauche movements from companies like ETA or Sellita.

Heuer had a strong tradition of adding to its bottom line by making watches for different companies, including Aristo, Baylor, Dugena, Zodiac, Tradition (house brand of the American department store Sears), Junghans, Clebar, Hamilton, LeJour, etc. from the 1800s through at least the 1980s. Heuer had excess capacity and other companies were more than happy to outsource their chronograph production to a company with serious chronograph expertise.replica watches

At the Heuer Summit in La Chaux-de-Fonds, there were two of these Kingon Autavias and seeing them side-by-side was a treat. It is interesting to note that the outside of the casebacks say Kingon and the dials say Kingon, while the inside of the casebacks and the movements say Heuer. Jack Heuer and others who worked for Heuer at that time did not remember anything about these watches when they saw them.

What are these Kingon Autavias worth? It is a little hard to say, as they have not come up for public auction recently. It seems like $25,000 might be a little high, but in the wake of such huge demand for the first execution big register Autavias, a pretty serious price wouldn’t be a surprise at all. replica watches