Heuer has now become a household name - albeit under different ownership than founded it, namely TAG Heuer, which took over in the mid-1980s. 
 
But the watch here - a 1984 Heuer Ref. 982.058 pewter diver, with its original bracelet - is no ordinary Heuer, which in the years since the mid-1980s has had some...questionable design choices.
 
The atypical pewter diver for here - only produced for a single year - represents old-school Heuer design, even if it comes in a smaller package. Heuer managed to scale down all the elements of its highly popular Ref. 980 dive watch series - produced beginning in 1979 through 1982 - to make a stunning dive watch, never an easy feat.
 
The attention to detail and quality is remarkable, and seems more of an achievement with these smaller Heuer cases.  Heuer built these divers to high standards, and rendered these waterproof to 200m – just like their bigger brothers.
 
This quintessential no-nonsense Heuer tool watch was produced between circa 1981-4, but in some important way it continued to be made throughout the 1990s (more on this below).  For a brief history of these amazing Heuer divers, as noted in a fascinating Hodinkee article, “A Personal Note: Marking Time With A Humble Heuer” - “In 1980, Heuer decided it was time to build a proper dive watch.  Sure, years earlier, it had fitted its "Automotive-Aviation" Autavia chronograph with a diving bezel, but the brand was largely focused on motorsports watches, which is where it had built its reputation."
 
But in the late 1970s, as Jack Heuer tells it in his autobiography, “The Times Of My Life,” Heuer was at a sporting goods trade show in Europe and was approached by a diving equipment company having trouble finding quality dive watches.
 
Before that fateful show, Heuer was not doing well as a company and its situation had begun deteriorating as early as late 1974 (along with most of the Swiss watchmaking industry, badly hit by the quartz crisis caused by Seiko).  Quartz watches were more technically advanced than mechanical watches, and at a lower price point too, making them fierce competitors for the traditional Swiss companies.
 
It is in this grim context Heuer saw an opportunity at that 1979 trade show.  Heuer got the idea to address a recurrent complaint voiced regarding the difficulty in finding reliable private label watches for underwater sports – Heuer’s expertise at this time was racing chronographs, but it took the challenge regardless, and teamed up with French supplier G. Monnin. 
 
Per Heuer, “To our great surprise our new diving watches were very well received by the market,” he said.  So much so, in fact, that the following year Heuer began offering the Diver Professional in four different sizes and a multitude of dial configurations.
 
Officially labeled as a 28mm diver and 16mm lugs, make no mistake, it’s a small watch - but perfect for an active woman.
 
This Heuer comes on its original stainless-steel Heuer bracelet, and with a spring bar tool and rugged travel case.