The Early execution of the Super Autavia dashboard chronograph has a thinner case than the “Standard” or “Late” models and is plated with chromium (rather than “Profectus”).  The thickness of the Early case is 11 millimeters (to the bottom of the bezel), versus 13 millimeters and 15 millimeters for the Standard and Late models.  The chromium on the Early Super Autavias is lighter than the darker Profectus used on the subsequent models.

There were two executions of the Super Autavia that used this first execution case.  The first version of the Super Autavia (Mark 1) has painted luminous batons on the dial, to mark the hours, with matching thin “stick” hands.  The second version of the Super Autavia — which we call “Transitional” or “Mark 1.5” — uses the first execution case, but has painted Arabic numerals on the dial, to mark the hours, with a wider hour hand.  Both these features of the Transitional Super Autavia would be carried forward to the Standard Super Autavia.