Sunday 31 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: Swatch System 51 Watches
SUTB400
Swatch Boutique / Carnaby Street, London 9th March 2019
This was my first exposure to the relatively new System 51 automatic watches from Swatch and as much as I sort of want to like them, I'm afraid they didn't really impress me. Both these watches are incredibly plasticy, and there's no real perception of quality here... they are quite big as well and while I did think some of the regular quartz pieces were fun (the 'Alien' watch in particular with its glow in the dark strap) I couldn't get over the feeling that these System 51 pieces were a bit overpriced. It all seemed a bit 'Emperor's new clothes' to me... especially when you read about the performance of the movements in these watches and realise they really aren't that great.
SUTB407
I actually bought my friend Rich a Seiko 5 last year for his birthday it's a lovely looking watch with a deep blue dial and a steel bracelet, it's also surprisingly accurate and performs far better than it's stated accuracy of +/- 20seconds per day. I mention this only because that watch cost a fair bit less than £130 and holding the two next to each other there's nothing to compare. By comparison the Swatch watch looks like a toy, the cases in particular look very cheap and nasty and there's just no reason I can think of to recommend purchasing one of these.
I know Swatch has it's fanboys and people will say I'm missing the point, Swatch is collectible and funky and limited and blah de blah de blah. Well, I have to say, for me it looks cheap, it performs pretty poorly and given my recent experience with the Seiko boutique for me to recommend buying Seiko is a big deal. In fact I'd recommend a quartz Timex over this for a third of the price... this really just seems like money for old rope, I mean God knows it's hard being a TAG Heuer fan with constant accusations of overpricing and poor value for money, but this really is a bit of a joke.
Save your money and either buy a cheaper, much better automatic Seiko 5 for less than £100, or save up a bit more and buy a pre-owned quartz Kirium or 6000 for less than £300.
Saturday 30 March 2019
Friday 29 March 2019
BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer 4000 Catalogue and Price List (1990)
I managed to pick up a couple of catalogues last week, this was the first and it's a nice little pamphlet about 200mm square with about twelve pages. A nice surprise was a pricing sheet included in with the parcel which I wasn't expecting. It cost me £12, which is probably about as much as I would be willing to pay really, but it's in excellent condition. Again the catalogue shows many of the 4000 series with lumed bezels, which is curious.
The catalogue has some slightly pointless clear 'tissue' paper before the first page, this was later used in the S/EL catalogue but at least they printed a picture on it then...
This catalogue predates my WF1111-0 as it uses the old numbering system. I'm assuming mine was previously known as the 999.206 which is on the first page and cost £495 when new - so considering I paid £375 last year, it's retained it's value pretty well really!
Thursday 28 March 2019
Wednesday 27 March 2019
SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Kirium Quartz Watch
WL111F.BA0701
I've been trying not to look on eBay too much because I'm now trying to build my funds up for something a bit better than yet another £300 quartz piece, but when I came across a WL111F Kirium going for less than £200 it was hard to resist... but I did and the piece eventually sold for £225. Damn, why didn't I bid?
The picture above is taken from the Watchfinder website, they have one of these for £675 (you could probably sell the eBay one to them and turn a small profit!) but they really aren't doing themselves any favours with that photo. The dial looks super dark and flat, but as we can see from the eBay pictures the dial is a gorgeous colour and looks pretty amazing when it catches the light.
Fingerprint aside, what a stunner! I'm really regretting this now... but, as is so often the case, one reason I didn't want to bid is that the bracelet is about two links too short for me and I didn't want to get into all that again. Pity though, because that is a lush dial and I do love my Kiriums. It's also a very different blue dial to the one on my Kirium chronograph - which completely negates any argument my wife might make that it looks 'the same' as the one I already have. :)
I will definitely keep my eye out in future, I'm sure it won't be too hard to find again at some point. Speaking of eBay, I snagged a few TAG related items from there a few days ago, I will post about the catalogues in a later post, but I also got a small (actually rather smaller than I expected..) folder thing, which I assume came inside the old barrel box.
Nothing terribly exciting really, but considering it cost less than £3 it's a nice little bit of extra paraphernalia for my collection box...
Tuesday 26 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer Two Tone Quartz & Calibre 5
WAY2150.BD0911 41mm Calibre 5 Rose Gold
List Price £3950 Bicester Price £2765
TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 11th March 2019
Something a little different this time, browsing the stock at the Bicester Village store I couldn't help noticing a collection of four two-tone Aquaracers: two quartz, two automatic, two gold, two rose gold. It's not often you get to see a collection of watches like that since most stores would be unlikely to stock more than two pieces at any one time, and to be honest I can't remember having ever seen any of these pieces before anywhere.
Starting with the WAY2150 pictured above, what we have here is a 41mm Calibre 5 Aquaracer in rose gold. The rose gold has a kind of brushed finish to it which looks great and tones it down quite a lot. By contrast the WAY2151 features polished yellow gold and to me at least it looks a little bit gaudy.
WAY2151.BD0912 41mm Calibre 5 Yellow Gold
List Price £3950 Bicester Price £2765
I do appreciate that the gold is restricted to the bezel and the smaller, alternate centre links which helps a bit, but only in as much as this watch would look even more tacky with a full set of gold centre links. Yeah, I'm really not a fan of the gold on this watch, the rose gold looks so much nicer and goes better with the creamy dial in my opinion. It's a slightly odd combination in any case but it does kind of work, I'd certainly be happy to wear the WAY2150.
WAY1151.BD0912 41mm Quartz Yellow Gold Aquaracer
List Price £3500 Bicester Price £2345
Moving on to the slightly cheaper quartz models, we find two very similar pieces: one in polished gold, one in brushed rose gold, but whereas I'd usually take a similar looking quartz piece at a cheaper price, here I think the difference isn't enough to warrant taking that course. Not least because if you go for the quartz model you sacrifice the horizontally slatted dial in favour of a much simpler and rather less interesting design.
WAY1150.BD0911 -41mm Rose Gold Quartz Aquaracer
List Price £3500 Bicester Price £2345
Again the WAY1151 is the less palatable of the two, the rose gold WAY1150 looks much classier, but the dial looks rather dull and uninspired... actually I'm trying to formulate an order of choice here and I'm struggling beyond the obvious winner. The yellow gold is horrible, but the quartz dial is really boring... it's a tough one!
WAP2150.BD0839 - 39.5MM Rose Gold Calibre 5 Aquaracer
List Price £5300 Bicester Price £3445
There is another option though, as TAG Bicester also have in stock the slightly smaller and considerably curvier WAP2150. I must admit I did initially mistake this for a ladies watch, such is it's less angular design and markerless, fixed gold bezel. This one has a display back whereas the other four have your generic 'diving helmet' Aquaracer back (yes, even the automatics) and if I remember correctly a capped bezel and links as opposed to plated. But that's reflected in the price, as this one weighs in at a slightly startling £3445 (down from £5300).
As you can probably tell, I'm not overly enamoured with any of these watches, but from the choices here it's an easy win for the WAY2150. I can imagine the WAP2150 going to a lady who likes a bigger watch, because it really does look quite feminine, especially when looked at next to the WAY alternatives, but in all honesty it doesn't really look like a £3.4k watch, much less a £5.3k one...
Monday 25 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: Hublot Big Bang Carbon Fibre Dial Watch
301.SB.131.RX
Watches of Switzerland / London, 9th March 2019
After several times seeing Hublots in Watches of Switzerland and Selfridges I finally got round to trying one on, I really don't know why I hadn't done so before - just one of those things I guess. I'm getting a bit more relaxed about trying things on that I can't afford (ever since I tried on that £147,000 Roger Dubuis in Harrods last year!) and at £11,200 this one is certainly not something I'll be buying anytime soon.
I think it's kind of disingenuous to take my usual line, which is 'if I had £11,000 to spend I'd buy a £6k TAG Heuer and pocket the change. That's all very well and probably true, but that rather fails to address my actual thoughts on the watch at hand.
And, well... I've gotta admit, this Hublot is pretty cool. You certainly can't fail to spot it, when I looked in the full length mirror with it on it was shining like a beacon as the shop lights caught the polished surfaces. No this Hublot doesn't do subtle. But then if you want subtle, you wouldn't be buying Hublot now would you?
I love the design of this one, it's kind of 'middle-ground' Hublot, not too crazy and not too dull either. The carbon fibre dial looks fantastic and the rubber strap was very attractive and pretty comfortable into the bargain. I also liked the polished numerals on the dial and the 44mm case wore surprisingly well, it didn't really feel as big as all that. Actually, just to back track a little there, as cool as the strap is, it does kinda look like some aftermarket straps I've seen on Watch Gecko... for about £40. The buckle was nice though.
Watch snobs will argue that Hublots are overpriced and nothing special under the bonnet, which may well be true... but you can't deny the brand has presence. Some of their watches are pretty hideous admittedly, but what Jean Claude Biver has created is kind of a TAG Heuer for people with deeper pockets. I can't afford one but I can definitely see the appeal and if I had £11k to spend I can definitely think of worse ways to spend it.
The watch definitely feels well made and the attention to detail is satisfying, like the little rubber pads on the chrono pushers and the way the case is layered together, it all adds up to more than the sum of it's parts and while I wasn't perhaps blown away by it, I definitely wasn't disappointed. I'm actually surprised that in the picture above it look like the majority of the surfaces are brushed because it certainly seemed very reflective when I was wearing it!
Funnily enough, this was my first Hublot, but by the end of the day I had tried on another 3, more on those another time.
Sunday 24 March 2019
SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Exclusive Quartz Watch
WN1112
I haven't been on eBay since I bought my classic white dial F1 Chrono a few weeks ago (I'm wearing it right now actually), and yesterday when I went on the site I had no intention of buying anything. I did place several bids, albeit not for watches.. but I was rather tempted to throw my hat into the ring for this rather nice blue dial 2000 Exclusive which finished last night.
Offered with an 8" bracelet, this looked to be great value... and sure enough somebody picked this up for just £270, which seems like a bit of a bargain to me. Sure, I don't need another 2000 Exclusive, I don't 'need' any more watches full stop - but that's not a reason to quit now is it? I must admit I was quite surprised the watch didn't fetch more as blue dial watches in general are very desirable, but I must admit looking at the picture above something didn't look quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
I really like my WN1153 2000 Exclusive, but I often wish I had one that wasn't two-tone, I thought the CN1110 I got in January (part of the trade I got for my Grand Carrera) was going to stroke that particular itch, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Somehow the chronograph version looks a lot more different than you'd think so it feels like a different watch altogether. Obviously I don't want to spend a lot of money to get a variation of a watch I already own, and sub £300 would have been very appealing, but having not long purchased my F1 Chrono (CA1212-1) and trying to build up my reserves pending new releases from Baselworld and my upcoming fiftieth birthday... well it didn't really make sense right now.
Admittedly, as I wasn't serious about bidding, I didn't go to the trouble of asking questions, so I don't know if the bezel is spinning like a top (for example, it's shown to move in the pictures, but does it move too much? Always a top question to ask that...). But on the face of it this was possibly something of a missed opportunity... my only reservation being that it seems a little too good condition wise. The bezels on these are almost always scratched and often quite badly, yet this one looks almost perfect... Hmm.
Looking a bit closer it's pretty apparent that there's been some polishing done and none too well actually. That bezel should look a lot more angular, and the raised parts of the bezel have lost their shape. Also, if you look at the bracelet, I believe the centre links should be polished and the outer links brushed... if you look closely you can see that the outer edges of the bracelet have been polished almost as if they were trying to mimic a 5 link bracelet (albeit with the polished parts on the outer edge), which is a bit bizarre.
Actually, I'm not 100% sure this is even on the right bracelet now I look at it. My 2000 Exclusives have a different centre link design altogether, this looks a lot like the standard 2000 bracelet, which it's entirely possible TAG Heuer might have supplied this on, but I'm still certain the outer links should be brushed. I don't suppose it would have been too hard to sort out the links with a Dremel and a bit of rouge, but there's no getting that bezel back how it should be. So maybe not so much a missed opportunity after all!
Saturday 23 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Calibre 5 Watch
WAZ2011.BA0842
Watches of Switzerland / London, 9th March 2019
Doing this blog, of course there's always a tendency to go for the more expensive and exciting watches, but sometimes it's nice to take stock and when I saw this simple, three handed Calibre 5 Formula 1 sitting in the display cabinet in Watches of Switzerland I thought, 'I should look at that'.
Priced at £1450, this is damn near the perfect starter watch for someone who wants a Swiss made, no frills, affordable wristwatch. The anthracite dial is lovely and makes the watch look much more expensive than it is, and the small flashes of red on the dial and the crown really give it that little bit of extra oomph it needs to stand out from the crowd.
I think if you wanted to buy just one watch (I mean that concept is a bit alien to me, but I understand that people do do that...) well this would be a good choice. It's smart enough to be worn with a suit, but sporty enough to wear casually. Also, I'm genuinely surprised that it's listed as being a 43mm because when I tried it on it didn't feel that big, I was thoroughly expecting it to be 41mm to be honest!
Sure, at this price you're not getting a ceramic bezel or a milled clasp, but you are getting a very classy looking dial and a watch that I don't think will date, making it a good long term bet for a single watch collection, or a great beater for the more experienced watch collector. I was genuinely surprised how nice it was on the wrist, and of course this watch is quite flexible as it would look great on a leather or rubber strap as well, again good for an only watch.
Like I said, it's always tempting to go for the big ticket pieces, but sometimes something a bit more down to Earth can be a pleasant surprise and this one certainly was. The only thing I would question is whether the batons are lumed, it looks like they are but Formula 1s have a habit of only having lume on the hands, so that's something to bear in mind. I have a feeling I did check that, but having tried on so many watches in one day I can't be sure, and while I've tried to get a solid answer on this, so far I've come up with nothing concrete.
Friday 22 March 2019
THE RUBBER STRAP PROJECT #8: WAY208C/D.FT6142
WAY208C.FT6142 WAY208D.FT6142
Long term readers might remember my 'Rubber Strap Project' from the early days of the blog. I'm not about to resurrect it as a regular feature, but I wanted to make this post because today I've finally been able to ascertain that the FT6142 strap is a viable option for these two Aquaracers, both of which I've been very keen on for a very long time. I thought there was a strap like this that I presumed would fit, but I hadn't been able to certain that it was available without the yellow backing. Now thanks to Tom at TAG Heuer I can make an informed decision, because these two have been on my list for a long time and I think I would have bought one or the other if it wasn't for the straps that they come on as standard (nylon on the WAY208C and Nato on the WAY208D). Personally I think they look fantastic, the only problem is now I want both of them!
ON THE WRIST: Rolex Yachtmaster Blue Dial 116622
116622
Selfridges / London, 9th March 2019
Hard to believe it may be, but until today I'd never tried on a Rolex. Never been particularly bothered either... and these days, it's pretty much impossible to try on most of the popular models as there just isn't any available stock anywhere. But I was a man on a mission today, I wanted to try on as many watches as possible and top of the list were Rolex and Hublot. Hublot is easy, plenty of Hublot stock around, chuck a stone in London and you'll hit a decent Hublot, Rolex on the other hand...
But actually, dredging through a sea of two-tone, undersized and generally ugly looking watches, I lucked into finding what is surely the nicest looking Rolex I have ever seen. I'm not too familiar with Rolex ways of doing things, but I vaguely remembered that a blue dial meant something, and looking at the watch in the cabinet I came to the conclusion that it meant the watch was white gold.
As it turns out, that wasn't the case. The case is actually Rolesium (Rolex's own blend of stainless steel and platinum, with it's own super tacky brand name!), but the bezel is 950 platinum, which means the watch retails for £8900 instead of the £20,000+ I was kind of expecting, and no Rolex do not put prices next to the watches in their boutique cabinets. The lady who served me was very nice and she told me that the watch had only come in the day before and that it would probably not be around for very long. Of course, this could be sales banter, but knowing Rolex I think her words were genuine enough. It's certainly the Rolex I would buy.
It's almost the Rolex TAG might make, with a gorgeous blue dial and the red second hand, it really worked with the icy case and bezel and it looks so un-Rolexy. I've seen these Yachtamsters before with fairly insipid dials and not really liked them too much, so it must be the strong red/blue colour scheme that's changed my mind. The watch is 40mm in diameter and reasonably thin, without being silly, and really the only thing about the watch that I wasn't overly keen on was the bracelet, or rather the width of it. It seemed awfully narrow for a 40mm watch, I don't know for sure but I would say it must have tapered to at least 16mm, which seemed a bit too narrow for my liking. Remarkably, even the cyclops didn't bother me, probably because unlike some of the ones I own, it actually does what it's supposed to and makes the date easier to read!
The watch is water resistant to 100M, although the lady who served me assured me that Rolex test to 300M anyway. I should hope so because 100M is a bit stingy for a non-chronograph called a 'Yachtmaster' don't you think? As you'd expect from Rolex the hour markers on the dial are white gold filled with Rolex's own lume (Chromalight) which has a long lasting blue glow. I didn't get to experience the lume myself, but I understand it's pretty good.
I honestly don't buy into the Rolex hype at all, looking around the boutiques I noted that there was almost nothing there that I would buy if I had pockets full of cash. But this one really stood out to me, and I'm glad I actually managed to find something I genuinely liked to try on rather than just trying on something unattractive for the sake of it. But £8900 is a lot of money and if I had that available then there's so many other options I would explore first that I very much doubt I would end up buying this (resale values be damned - more on this anon). Still I'm glad I've finally experienced a little bit of the Rolex magic, even if overall it has left me more confused than ever as to why this brand above all others are so outrageously successful.
Thursday 21 March 2019
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Autavia Isograph
WBE5110.EB0173
You may remember that Baselworld 2018 resulted in some 'leaked' prototypes of Calibre 5 and Calibre 7 Autavia which didn't exactly look that promising. As the weeks dragged into months and the months became nearly a year, it became apparent that perhaps those models weren't actually going to make the cut. And from my perspective, that was a good move!
So now, on the eve of Baselworld 2019 we find ourselves presented with a brand new variety of Autavia, this time called the 'Isograph' and containing the Calibre 5 movement, albeit upgraded with the carbon hairspring found in the recent Nanograph Carrera.
WBE5112.FC8266
TAG Heuer's social media teasing suggested a 'pilot' watch of sorts, and it is, kind of... well, ish. I mean it's got an oversized crown for sure, that looks like it's come off a Carrera. Thankully they've dispensed with the red stripe down the middle... and it's 42mm, which is sensible. I do wonder how many people really want those massive pilot's watches, granted a few collectors, but as a mass market item it's never going to wash.
My initial reaction when seeing this new model was - Oh, it looks like a Breitling. Which it kinda does, and given Breitling's aeronautical leanings I guess that was slightly inevitable. More specifically the numerals remind me of the Colt Skyracer, which is not something to be proud of unfortunately.
Thankfully though the Autavia's Arabic numerals are applied!
The second thing that struck me was, that something looked 'wrong'. That something turned out to be the TAG Heuer logo up there at the 12 position. The 'TAG Heuer' logo rather than the 'Heuer' logo... which on the face of it I should be happy about, even if it's going to annoy a lot of people. But the problem is, the new TAG logo is very clean, very sharp, very... modern, not to put too fine a point on it and consequently to me it looks a bit out of place on this retro dial. I get the reasoning behind it, this is a 'new' watch and not a re-issue so the Heuer logo wouldn't be appropriate, and not too long ago I did photoshop the new logo onto one of the Heuer Calibre 17 Carreras and it looked great, but this one, not so much. I guess it will look okay eventually, these things always settle in, but off the bat it seemed to look a bit off. It will be interesting to see how the target audience reacts, we've already seen Breitling change their logo back to their older design - unfortunately TAG Heuer are in this peculiar position of not having that to fall back on, or rather they choose not to fall back on it because it would anger the Heuer purists. Who would want to have to make these decisions?
The new Autavia comes in a selection of colours and straps, including for the first time a bronze model. You may remember the leaked bronze Autavia drawing from last year's Baselworld... this is probably one of the better looking new Autavias and I imagine this one will sell well - assuming TAG aren't too late to the bronze party?
On the face of it, these watches fill a gap in the TAG Heuer line-up, making the Autavia a more affordable proposition. With the steel case/steel bezel on a leather strap models starting at 3400CHF (Approx £2600) and topping out at 4200CHF (£3200) for the bronze case/ceramic bezel on leather TAG finally has something to offer the retro enthusiast for the price of a top line Aquaracer.
Wednesday 20 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Pepsi' GMT v TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 5 'Polar Explorer'
WAY201F.BA0927 WAY2013.BA0927
Selfridges / London, 9th March 2019
While this head to head comparison came about almost entirely by accident (the watches were displayed close together in Selfridges' cabinet), it struck me as I edited the image above that I'd chosen to pitch two watches together which are united by a common theme: Rolex. Like it or not, one can't fail to think 'Rolex GMT' when clapping eyes on the Aquaracer Pepsi for the first time, and similarly you'd be hard pushed to ignore the fact that the WAY2013 has more than a whiff of the Rolex Explorer II (Polar) about it!
I've tried both of these watches on before and I will put the links to the original 'On the Wrist' posts at the bottom of the page. Also, both of these have been 'on my list' at one time or another - but so far I'm yet to fully commit to either of them... these two definitely have character, but my interest has waxed and waned for some reason and I can't quite work out why that is exactly.
I did get slightly excited a while back when TAG Heuer released a 41mm quartz version of the 'Explorer' (I'm just going to call it the 'Explorer', okay...) but when I got to see it it was a huge disappointment. The 2mm drop in size I could live with, but the slatted dial was gone and they switched the cool black 'rubber' markers out for polished rhodium. It was about £500 cheaper, but the effect was somewhat ruined and I didn't like it much at all.
No such option exists for the Pepsi, it's the Calibre 5 or no TAG Pepsi at all. I wonder if they'll release a quartz version for Baselworld 2019? I doubt it. So WAY201F it is then and with a list price of £2200 it represents a significant increase over the WAY2013, but of course you are getting a GMT funtion and that funky bezel. I suspect most of the sales for the Pepsi will be driven by the bezel rather than the GMT function if I'm honest, so the argument that 'I don't need a GMT function' is somewhat moot (especially as I've already got one and have owned and sold another one!).
I definitely go back and forth with these two, but one thing that has changed since I tried the 'Explorer' on for the first time is that I have added a white dial TAG Heuer to my collection, in fact three white dial TAG Heuers... which means that box no longer needs to be ticked. By contrast of course, while I have acquired the 1500 Series GMT (one of the three white dials in question) I don't have anything remotely resembling a Pepsi bezel, or a ceramic bezel of any description come to that.
So why is it that I still can't choose the Pepsi? On paper it seems like it has the upper hand. It can't be the dreaded cyclops because they both have them (both equally useless and ugly) and they share the same bracelet and case. So what is it? Well, while I do like the GMT, there is something about those black hour markers and that orange second hand. It just looks cool against that slatted white background. And so, while I do like the Pepsi, I think the Explorer is the one I would go for*.
I'm not going to spend £1850 on one mind you, but if and when these trickle down to the pre-owned market I think I will probably bite. Actually, between you and I, I think the Pepsi will hold it's value a bit better as well, which is potentially a bonus for those of us looking for a pre-owned 'Explorer'. But that quartz 'Explorer'... that's just nasty! I don't want to ever have to look at that again!
(*Well, ask me again in a month or two and we'll see!)
Original 'On the Wrist' Posts:
WAY2013.BA0927 'Explorer' Calibre 5:
http://tagheuerenthusiast.blogspot.com/2017/06/on-wrist-aquaracer-calibre-5-automatic.html
WAY201F.BA0927 'Pepsi' GMT Calibre 7:
http://tagheuerenthusiast.blogspot.com/2018/04/on-wrist-tag-heuer-aquaracer-gmt.html
Tuesday 19 March 2019
ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Alec Monopoly Carrera
CAR201AA.BA0714
TAG Heuer Boutique / Sheffield, January 26th 2019
My first impression of this wasn't great to be honest, but like the second generation Alec Monopoly Formula 1, this actually looks better close up that it does in the pictures. I'm not really a fan of this though, it still looks a little bit of a mess and the subdials do rather get in the way of the design, but it doesn't look as tacky as I expected it to.
I can't help liking the Formula 1 version and I still kinda wish I'd jumped on the original release, it just seems to make more sense to spend £1000 on a 'fun' watch than £4900, which is what this Carera Heuer 01 costs. From what I gather talking to staff in the shops, most other people feel the same as the Formula 1 is selling reasonably well and this one... not so much.
To be fair to Alec, the dial layout doesn't offer much in the way of space to work with. It might have been an idea to ditch the date window and provide a bit more real estate and maybe they should have ditched the shield while they were at it. They could also have changed the 'Tachymetre' text on the bezel to 'TAG Heuer' instead, and perhaps done something a bit more interesting with the rest of the bezel that was more pertinent to Alec. Just a thought.
It will be interesting to see come the next generation whether we get another Monopoly Carrera, or whether it will revert to a Formula 1 only edition. I think the problem here may be that the customers are more 'Alec Monopoly' fans rather than watch enthusiasts, and the F1 is a relatively 'cheap' way to own a piece of Alec's 'art'. From that perspective the F1 with it's clean open dial makes more sense as the dial is all important here, so maybe it would have made more sense to go with a non-chronograph Aquaracer instead, possibly in a 43mm case to give plenty of space for art to breathe?
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