A trip to Chester and Cheshire Oaks...

This last couple of days I have been in Chester and also Cheshire Oaks where there is a TAG Heuer outlet store. There are quite a number of jewellers in Chester, though oddly the Ernest Jones seems to be completely down-market, focusing on fashion watches and the like. Maybe there's another Ernest Jones somewhere that I didn't see, but it was more like a H Samuels in there to be honest.

Beaverbrooks is almost opposite and had a decent selection of TAG Heuer's, albeit not the most exciting range I've ever seen. They did have the Red Bull Formula One (on the technical strap) which I tried on though, and also a decent selection of Tudor's (including the North Flag, Black Bay and the blue and grey Pelagos models) if you like that sort of thing...

Further down the street there is Walton's of Chester who stock a good selection of TAG Heuer's and quite a lot of Brietlings as well. My attention was particularly caught by the utterly nuts Avenger Hurricane, a 50mm resin cast monster with 24 hour hands. I really wish I'd gone in and tried it on actually, though I'm sure 50mm is way too big for me. The price is certainly way too much for me, somewhere between £7-8,000.

My next stop was David M Robinson's where I tried on the Aquaracer 300M Black Phantom and also the Aquaracer 300M with the black and yellow rubber strap. I'm sure there were more stores that I didn't really look in as well, including Boodles which had some very tasty Patek Philippe watches in the window (not really my thing, but you can't help but admire them).

Also there was a shop inside the shopping centre which had quite a selection of used Rolex's (alongside a lot of lower end brands like Citizen etc) and also had a few pre-owned Breitlings (including one monstrous silver chrono) and a Tudor Black Bay with the burgundy bezel which they were selling for £1700, which seemed pretty reasonable.

Just up from that there was yet another watch store, although strangely TAG Heuer was a noteable absentee from their roster. Perhaps TAG just have too many dealers in Chester? The store stocked a fair few of their semi-obvious competitors like Baume and Mercier, Bell and Ross and Hamilton so I fully expected them to stock TAG Heuer as well.

Moving on to Cheshire Oaks, I've always found the TAG Heuer store there to be a much nicer experience than the one in Bicester Village. The one in Bicester sometimes has better stock (but equally, not always), but the staff in the Cheshire Oaks one always seem much nicer and less pushy.

They have a very large selection of ladies Link watches in there at the moment, perhaps they are gearing up for Christmas, I guess that makes sense. But also a fair assortment of mens pieces too. Today I tried on the Monaco 24 in blue and silver, and also the orange / grey. A Carrera 'Speed' Limited Edition (250 pcs), a Carrera Monaco 2012 Grand Prix Limited Edition (3000 pcs) and a Carrera 2013 Monaco Grand Prix Limited Edition (4000 pcs), all at hefty discounts.

I also spotted a black / green 500m Aquaracer (though the price seems to have gone back up on that one, they were selling for £1800 at one point, but now back over £2000, but still a huge discount off the list price of £4000), a good selection of Grande Carrera models in black with orange, yellow and red accents.

I wish I lived nearer the Cheshire Oaks store as it's a long drive up there for me. Of all the things I tried on today, the nearest I came to buying was definitely the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix Carrera, at £2400 it seemed like a great deal, but I just couldn't be 100% on it this time. If you've never been to Cheshire Oaks, it really is worth a visit, but take plenty of cash!