THE ESSENTIALS
MAKE: HEUER
MODEL: 279.603
YEAR: 1977
BOX/PAPERS: NO/NO
CASE DIAMETER: 45mm
CASE MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
BRACELET MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
MOVEMENT: AUTOMATIC
What we love about Heuer is their dedication to producing a tool watch for nearly every outdoor sport imaginable. Like skiing? We have you covered, diving? Sure no problem. Yachting? You guessed it. Welcome to the Solunar, the Solar and Lunar time watch, hence the portmanteau Solunar.
Te example here is the last iteration of the Solunar and interestingly one of the very few Heuer's that used an ETA movement rather than the more common Valjoux and Landeron based calibres.
Before diving into how the Solunar watch works, let's briefly touch on what influences the timing of tides. Tides are primarily caused by the gravitational pull between Earth and the moon. High tides shift daily due to Earth's daily rotation and the moon's orbit around Earth every roughly 28 days.
The Solunar watch uses a 12-hour dial with 14-day markers. Each marker represents about 51 minutes, closely matching the daily high tide shift of approximately 51.5 minutes.
To use the watch, if your fishing trip starts on a Friday with the first high tide at 9:00 AM, you align the "FRI" marker with 09:00 on the inner disc using the lower crown. This setting predicts the high tides for the next two weeks, showing each subsequent high tide about 51 minutes later each day.
Additionally, the outer bezel is used to track the roughly 6-hour interval between high and low tides, allowing you to see the pattern of tides throughout the day. By setting the red triangle to the high tide time, you can follow the daily tidal cycle.
In terms of the watches condition, the case looks to be unpolished, the markers and hans have wonderful patina which against the blue dial really is eye catching. The original printed bezel has faded evenly. Some hand dragging rings are evident on the dial around the stem.
The movement is running well at +2, 260 amps and 1.2 beat error.