Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447

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. There are very few known Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 timepieces, with total number publicly known in the teens.

[1] Jack Heuer, The Times of My Life

Below is an aggregation all of the Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 pieces I have found. If you find others, please contact me with a link and/or images and case number if available.

Each row in the table below is specific to a transaction or known piece. I am including all sales and offers, given there are so few pieces. As a result, the table may include multiple rows with the same piece.

The range seen is extremely limited due to few pieces seen. There is an outlier at 688xxx, and ranges are commonly accepted to include 789xxx and more generally 935xx. Case number can be found between the lower lugs.

Caveats:
Description of pieces are generally based upon public images/video. For some detail, I do not have images and have to rely on text descriptions from the timepiece posting. Some elements are often difficult to determine from pictures, and if I have only a 50-50 guess, I leave the detail as “unknown.”

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

The above table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Within the Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 dial we see two key differences, the “T” indication below the center post, as well as an outlier with additional lines and both light/dark blue coloring on the tidal register

All dials have:
– tidal register (“lunar dial”) with
— inner rotating dial featuring indicator with crescent moon and point
— surrounding 24 hour marks with AM/PM indication
– 30 minute register with blue area (regatta timer) between 0-5 minutes
– 12 hour register with shorter marks on the hour, longer on half-hours
– Luminous triangular markers at all hours except 3 and 9 (additional exceptions, below)
– Applied index markers at all hours except 3, 6, 9; double markers at 12

The most prominent design on the dial is the “tidal” register (branded as “Solunar” on other references, and Heuer referring to as a “lunar” dial). This register features a inner rotating dial and is surrounded by hour numbers with AM/PM indication. The lunar dial is set based upon local tide tables, with the pointer end indicating high and low tides (see image below). On that dial, the crescent moon when pointed up indicates a full moon, when at the 9 o’clock position indicates a waning room (last quarter), 3 o’clock indicating waxing (1st quarter), and pointing down is a new moon.

But…why should you care? Well, because you swim, boat, hunt, fish and farm, of course. The high and low tides let you plan time on the water for you and your mariner buddies. When you get back to the farm you’ll leverage the indicator showing the waxing moon indicating growth, harvest at full moon, and crop storing during a waning moon. And since you follow the Solunar Theory, you’ll be able to determine periods of fish and game activity as well.

I have divided the known pieces into 3 groups. I would like to be able to say based upon case number, but with few available and with dial elements overlapping in ranges, it is difficult to see patterns as of yet:
1. Top two rows, which have the clean dial (no T).
These dials do not have luminous plots at 3 and 9 with one exception, which is a dial with thicker ‘Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer’ text.

3. Center row, which has outliers (and when there is just one of anything…well…it makes me look much, much closer – I would like to see at least one other example to be more confident that the “unique” piece wasn’t so because it was modified). This row contains one watch with a different tidal register design, and the other watch has the “HEUER” logo at 12 o’clock above ‘Seafarer’ text.

3. Bottom two rows, which had the ‘T’ indication below the center post and above the hour register.
‘T’ dials have luminous plots at 3 and 9, which also differentiates them apart from most “no T” dials.

Images via (L to R):
Row 1: OnTheDash, Christie’s, Collections Corner, Antiquorum
Row 2: HODINKEE, OnTheDash
Row 3 (outliers): OnTheDash, @vintageheuercarrera
Row 4 (T): Christie’s, Christie’s, Menta Watches, @divetimer
Row 5 (T): OnTheDash, OnTheDash, Wind Vintage

While we see a few different types of hands used, generally speaking we expect to find all Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 Hands with some key elements:
– steel dauphine hour and minute hand, luminous insert in rectangular shape (shorter and wider in the hour hand, longer and thinner in the minute hand)
– pointed blued chronograph hand, no lume, tail at end
– minute and hour registers have thin blued stick hands that are non-luminous
– there is no running seconds hand
– lastly, the tidal register is a disc, with no rotating hand

We see one offs, such as one piece with non-luminous main hand, and another with leaf at end of chronograph hand. As a rule of thumb, I do not believe these elements were intended in the original design, nor if manufactured as such.

The Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 features a crown with Heuer logo. While we do see examples with unsigned crown, they are few and I believe the logo crowns are correct to this reference.

As with other 2447s, the Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer has round pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock, and then in addition has the tidal pusher at 9 o’clock. The tidal pusher advances the tidal register to allow the user to set the phase of the moon/high and low tides.

The Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 uses a modified Valjoux 72, the Caliber 721, which features a tidal register at 9 o’clock.

The movements are stamped as 721, and the balance cock is etched ‘AXF’, which is the U.S. import code for Abercrombie & Fitch.

We see on the movement:
– ‘HEUER-LEONIDAS SA’ (Heuer having purchased Leonidas in 1964) and ‘SWISS’ on the chronograph bridge (I have not seen movement numbers on the bridge as with earlier Seafarers
– ‘SEVENTEEN 17 JEWELS UNADJUSTED’ on the train wheel bridge
and on the main plate
– ‘721’ (for the Valjoux 721) and cursive mark ‘R’ (for the brothers John and Charles Reymond who founded Valjoux in 1901), indicated on the base plate underneath the balance wheel
– ‘MN’ on the base plate as well, which per heuerchono stands for Montes Novalis (MN)

With just over a dozen Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 pieces known, it is difficult to see trends. I’ll be adding a table below, but beyond the information there, particularly given so few pieces, you’ll need to consider the condition of pieces foremost. While the vintage Heuer market has had it’s ups-and-downs, the AFSF 2447 has continued to gain strength as more collectors learn and appreciate the piece…enough so that exceptional examples will now exceed $60k.

A recent public sale of a Heuer 2447 AFSF was Christie’s on June 6, 2023 in New York. This watch sold for just over $40,000 USD to an online bidder from Belgium. This piece was in good condition, though had dial damage by the 10 mark and also at 12 o’clock. The lume was much brighter on the hands, less to the dial marks, and took significantly longer to fade, indicating the hands had likely been relumed. This sale price was a part of a weak sale at Christie’s that had over 30% (!) of lots pass – we won’t ever now, but perhaps this reference would have gone significantly higher in a stronger market (we did see other references underperform in this sale as well).

Please contact me if you know of any other pieces, have serial numbers to contribute, or corrections.

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

The above chart and table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Sadly, one of these extremely rare Heuer Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer 2447 watches has been stolen (in the fall of 2020…dang 2020). Serial 93456.

While casebacks and some components can be swapped or polished, these pieces are so rare that any distinguishing marks on the dial will allow one to quickly place the watch. In this case there are a number of areas that are discolored:
– flaking around 3 minute mark and some around 7-8 minutes
– grey spots at center of chronograph minute register
– spot at 12 between center post and numeral on chronograph hour register
– spotting at 37 minutes, to the left of the numeral 9 in the chronograph hour register

If anyone spots this watch, please contact me and I’ll get in touch with the rightful owner. Thanks everyone.