YOU REALLY ONLY have two options when you’re collecting late- 1970s and ’80s Heuers: spend the next 20 years cramming about the almost infinite variations between pre-TAG, transitional and post-TAG models, let alone dial and case variations, or just buy what you like the look of. The 980.013 (and its variants) fits the second approach. It’ll never be worth millions and isn’t particularly rare, but it has that certain something a well-designed vintage diver should have.
At first look, you may think the 980 was intended to be a poor man’s Sub, but not a bit of it. A plain, no-date Sub may have cost over £250 more when it was new in 1981, but the Heuer still weighed in at £108. And it’s worth remembering that the Rolex was far from the Watchworld ubiquity it is today. Heuer realised there was a market for a well-priced diving watch that would, like the Rolex, have serious lume, easy-toread hands and a graduated bezel. You could see the same approach from Seiko, Citizen and countless others.