29 Oct 2016, 05:39
Hi Kasper,
I might be misunderstanding the question, but I think the key difference is visible in your photo... right there in the middle of the case... starting with the word "SWISS", ending in "CASE". :)
During the height of the Pulsar years (1974 to 1976-ish), a bunch of P3 and P4 Executive cases were produced by Ervin Piquerez S.A. in Bassecourt, Switzerland. Curiously, the Swiss made cases had slightly different shapes than the more common ones produced by Star Watch Case Company in Lancaster, PA (note the little star on the left case back). The Swiss P3 cases were more rounded on the sides all the way to the back without the flat bevel at the base like the US cases. The Swiss P4 Exec cases had a more elliptical oval shape rather than the TV shape of the Star made cases. If you'd like comparison photos, let me know.
It would be interesting to know about the manufacturing process that was used at the time to understand what might account for the differences in shape. It wasn't like today where you would simply email a CAD file with precise definition of the bezier curves involved and then feed that to your CNC machine. Anyone have any ideas how that all worked?
Cheers,
-abe.