Exceedingly rare, the Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447, manufactured by Heuer, comes from a lineage of tide timepieces. These Seafarer pieces were an evolution of the Solunar timepieces initially produced in 1949, Jack Heuer’s first professional contribution to the company [1]. The Solunar model was the fruition of a request from Walter Haynes, then-President of outdoors company Abercrombie & Fitch, for a watch that could display the times of tides. The solunar theory holds that animal activity is largely dependent on the phase of the sun and moon and tides, which allow the hunter to time when prospects are best.
The company built upon the Solunar release with the launch of the Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 346 in the following year (1950), and incorporated a chronograph. The 346 and early 2443 both retained the colorful tidal register of the original Solunar timepieces. The line then evolved into two-tone registers within the late 2443 and early 2444. The later 2444 possessed the same key dial and hand traits of 2447, with blue and white tidal and minute registers, dauphine hands, and applied steel markers.
The focus of this research is specifically the Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer by Heuer, in the Carrera 2447 case. Why? Well, simply put, I find the shape of the 2447 case the most appealing within the Heuer line – more aggressive than the rounded lugs of the 346 and 2444, and more elegant to my eye than the 2443 lugs, which have a more “bolted-on” appearance. We see very few Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 timepieces, with total number publicly known in the teens.
[1] Jack Heuer, The Times of My Life