Heuer
Monnin 844
Ref. 844-2

The 844 was born out of numerous requests to Heuer in the mid to late 1970s for high quality own-brand watches for underwater sports at an affordable price. When this opportunity arose, Heuer decided to enter the diving watch market; with no prior experience in making diving watches, as Heuer was much more accustomed to making chronographs for race timing. Heuer took a cautious approach at the time, outsourcing the production of their watches to a French company called Georges Monnin rather than investing new resources if they wanted to make watches in Switzerland themselves. When the 844 was released, sales immediately skyrocketed. So much so that Heuer decided to move the production of these watches to Switzerland rather than outsource it. The Heuer Monnin was first presented to the public in the 1979 Heuer catalogue. The first two versions of the 844 were produced in France. Production of the 844-2 to 844-5 models was then transferred to Switzerland.