The “panda and reverse panda dial” Carrera is the surprising result of a “butterfly effect” commencing in the United States and bearing consequences in Switzerland. Legend has it that in the late 1960s a Heuer watchmaker in America was so taken by the Autavia 2446C panda dial that he fitted such a dial onto his Carrera model. A year later, Heuer officially launched the second generation Carrera chronograph models incorporating the panda and reverse panda dials.

The second generation Carrera models nevertheless continued featuring different scales on the outer edge of the dial, adding to the functionality of the wristwatch. These included tachymeter, decimal and pulsation scales. The rarest of all such dials are silver with black registers with either a decimal or tachymeter scale as seen in the present example.

The sub dials on Carreras models that feature outer scales are smaller than in regular models as to accommodate the latter providing an alluring and distinctive result. Furthermore, the hour and minute hands are shorter in order to align with the hour markers, which in turn are closer to the dial centre. The present lot has also been given blacked tipped service hands, which nicely complement the black infill hour markers. A superb case, wonderfully aged tropical sub-dials and ultimate rarity as the present lot is one of just 10 known to the collecting community, make this watch a wonderful addition to any Carrera and chronograph collection.