FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 200 Professional Ladies Watches

 

WBP2410.BA0622                                          WBP2411.BA0622

While the new 40mm Aquaracers were stealing all the headlines in the watch press, TAG Heuer quietly slipped out a bevy of 30mm Aquaracers on the side... admittedly there was nothing particularly newsworthy about these, since they pretty much followed the standard template: diamonds, mother of pearl dials, mother of pearl dials with diamonds, mother or pearl dials with diamond hours and a diamond bezel, etc. But one model caught my eye, that being the opaline blue dial, which stood out for it's elegant simplicity.

WBP1411.BA0622               WBP1415.BA0622                WBP1410.BA0622

I guess we shouldn't be too critical of this range since this is obviously the 'base' selection, intended to last for several years and hopefully some more daring colour schemes will be coming down the tracks. It would be nice to see the metallic green dial make a comeback, but I imagine these represent a very practical choice for women who maybe only own one or two watches since a silver or mother of pearl dial can be worn with pretty much anything.

WBP1417.BA0622                                        WBP1416.BA0622

Again, as with the recently released 40mm Aquaracers these are 200M rather than 300M, similarly they also feature the new 'outdoor adventure' compass backplate and again the old style '3 holes' adjustment on the clasp. I really don't understand the logic here, why do the 36mm and 43mm models get the new 'glide' clasp, but the 30mm and 40mm models get a clasp that looks similar but has old school pin hole adjustments?

The response from the Council of Considered Opinion was distinctly lacklustre fore these pieces, which is understandable I suppose, in fact I only received eight responses to my call for scores and comments... but the overall sentiment seemed to be that the diamond bezel version was by far the least popular, with the blue fumé scoring reasonably well across the board.

WBP1411.BA0622 (Silver dial): 5.9/10

WBP2411.BA0622 (Blue fumé dial with diamonds): 6.7/10

WBP2410.BA0622 (Black fumé dial with diamonds): 6.3/10

WBP1416.BA0622 (MOP dial with diamonds): 6.2/10

WBP1415.BA0622 (Blue opaline dial): 6.6/10

WBP1410.BA0622 (Black dial): 5.9/10

WBP1417.BA0622 (MOP dial with diamond bezel): 5.0/10

"The first one (silver dial) is the pick of the bunch for me. Simple and elegant. 7/10. Black and blue dials 6/10. All the ones with diamonds 5/10, except the mother of pearl one which only scores 4/10. Tasteless and derivative."

"Probably an even 6/10 for me all round. Diamonds for me are a bug bear as my other half hates them on women's watches (she's only just come round to MoP dials) 30mm size wise seems small considering the bezel. Again only going on my other halves PoV 28-32mm is the perfect size. Also the silver bezel think is lost/ confused with the MoP & diamond dials - it's unsure what it wants to be. Silver/ black & blue opaline for me. If spending that amount of money for me needs to be auto (hate expensive quartz) yet I know women prefer them."

"Asked the gaffer’s opinion and she reckons the silver,-looks white btw- 7/10. Black n Blue dials 6/10.

Dials with diamonds 5.5/10. MoP with extra diamonds 4/10. Prices? Mmm, ok on silver, black n blue, diamonds adding extra expense that could be spent elsewhere, don’t improve the watch."

"Plain Silver Dial WBP1411: I would give this a 6 out of 10. Its ok. A simple but rather plain 3 hander. Nothing exciting here to be honest.

Blue Dial with Diamond Hour Markers WBP2411: 8 out of 10! A lovely blue dial which also makes the diamond markers pop. Bezel is a bit plain but not so noticeable due to the dial.

Black Dial with Diamond Hour Markers WBP2410: 7 out of 10. The black dial is nice along with the diamond markers but compared to the blue dial this just doesn't seem as exciting.

Mother of Pearl Dial with Diamond Hour Markers WBP1416: 7 out of 10. The mother of pearl is nice but that's about it. Plus I prefer the date on the dial.

Blue Opaline Dial WBP1415: Again 7 out of 10. The blue dial is very nice but again just a bit unremarkable in my opinion.

Plain Black Dial WBP1410: 6 out of 10. There is nothing wrong with this. A very nice watch but like I said above a bit unremarkable.

Mother of Pearl with Diamond Hour Markers and Diamond Bezel WBP1417: 8 out of 10. This is my favourite! The dial is ok but there is a lot more interest here with the diamond bezel and it all works very well together in my opinion. Shame it has no date complication."

"I do not agree to increase the price of the introductory model. This time, a quartz model has been added to the Aquaracer, so I'm thinking favorably about that."