'Kingsman' Limited Edition Connected
A slightly off the wall post today perhaps, but maybe something worth exploring briefly. As watch enthusiasts we all know the pleasure and pain of watch boxes, because after you get more than three or four watches you realise that you need something to put them in because the boxes they come in take up too much space. Suddenly those super cool multi-part boxes become less of a joy and more of a hinderance and as the pile mounts up it gets harder and harder to find somewhere to keep them all.
Or maybe that's just me?
Anyway, today I thought I'd take a look at the boxes that TAG Heuer have offered through the last 35 years, using my own collection to illustrate (with a little help from the internet here and there). So let's start with the obvious...
You're probably familiar with all of the first four; here we have the current grey oblong box and the previous brown square box which I believe came in around 2017/2018...
...and the older black box from the mid 00s onwards and the green barrel case from the late 90s/early 00s.
So let's look at some older boxes. My wife had one of these with her blue dial 2000 Series in the mid 90s. My first Kirium was bought around the same time and that came in a green barrel box so I think they were both used at the same time; maybe the barrel was for dearer models? This one is slightly different because my wife's had a red and green logo on it. Eventually she had to throw it out because the rubberised surface became very tacky and unpleasant! I know some people still have them and they are fine so maybe it was just a bad batch or something?
Here we have a couple of boxes used to transport the classic Formula 1, the original slide box which came with my wife's NOS raspberry model and a more well recognized plastic barrel case from the 90s.
The Grand Carrera was supplied in a very nice brown wooden box, unfortunately I never took a decent photo of mine when I had it, but thankfully the internet has supplied this one.
These two are also from the 1980s. On the left we have a blue plastic box which came with my steel 3000 Series, and on the right we have the black plastic barrel in which my gold 3000 Series arrived from America.
This is a very cool box, which transforms itself into a display unit. Usually the part which holds the watch sits flat on its side, but there are pegs in the base which allow you to turn it upright to show off your watch.
Another watch box from the 1980s, this brown plastic box came with my recently purchased 'Executive' quartz piece.
These are what's called 'service cases', if you send a watch away for repair or service it will generally come back in one of these. The cardboard box is the older of the two, as can be seen by the logo. The longer, zip round one is much nicer and can also be used for storing glasses if you take the foam inserts out.
In more recent times TAG Heuer have taken to issuing 'special/limited edition' watches in unique boxes; this is the box for my Formula 1 Senna WAZ1014.
Another example would be the 160th Anniversary Carrera CBK211B which came in this cool box complete with carry case and loupe!
All the TAG Heuer Red Bull watches have also been supplied in cool and unusual boxes... though the newer idea seems to be to add a plaque into an existing box rather than creating a properly unique box like the one above.
Here's a very rare box, just 150 of these were made to celebrate TAG Heuer's 150th anniversary in 2010. It contained a Meridist mobile phone and a special orange accented Grand Carrera.
Whether you are a fan of the Connected smart watch or not, you can't deny that it comes well packaged, and this limited edition 'Alec Monopoly' version is one of the coolest watch boxes TH have ever made.
But it pales into insignificance against this beast of a box, made to house the Connected Tourbillon. Our good friend Albert AMG has actually got this box and he told us it is very heavy indeed. Unfortunately he hasn't managed to save up enough pennies to buy the Tourbillon module yet, which is the only thing he needs to complete the entire Connected Series 2 collection. I'm sure one day he will get it though.
And finally, if you've bought anything from the TAG Heuer website recently then you've probably received a 'boutique experience' box. It's quite hilarious how big this thing is, but at the same time I can't quite understand how a major corporation can justify using so much packaging in a world where people jump up and down about potatoes being in plastic bags... my biggest problem was finding somewhere to store it, I think it ended up under my bed! I must admit though, it is pretty damned cool and I think it does a great job of providing the 'theatre' of a boutique in your own home - so congratulations to TAG Heuer and whoever designed this.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this brief look at some of the boxes TAG Heuer have used over the last 35 years, maybe I could do a follow up post detailing all the special edition boxes, assuming I can find good pictures of them...
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