SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Sports 'Disney Dial' Quartz Watch

WM1112.BA0317DI

A few weeks ago I got very excited when I found a really nice 'Coke' bezel 2000 Sports on eBay at a great price for sale on eBay in the UK. However my excitement was short lived as I quickly realised the watch was a WM1212 (midsize) rather than a WM1112 (mens) - truth be told I didn't even know they made the Sports 2000s in midsize, so that lead to more items being added to the TAG Heuer Enthusiast Gallery Blog (ladies sizes too!). Slightly dejected I posted a note on the Calibre 11 forum asking should anyone come across a WM1112 for sale, would they please let me know. 

Well it didn't take all that long for me to get a message (thank you HoltzPlatz) linking to one for sale on eBay (US) for a reasonable price... albeit the listing said the seller 'may not post to the UK'. And of course the watch had one 'extra' feature that I wasn't expecting, nor did I have previous knowledge of!

I did know that there were some TAG Heuers out there with Mickey Mouse dials, because our Japanese friend Yuki (24Snowy24) sent me some photos of two 1500 Series watches with a similar dial adornment just a few weeks ago, but I didn't know that they had also found their way onto this model as well.

Interestingly the seller also posted a photo of the box the watch came in which not only gives us the correct part number for this 'Special Edition' (with a 'DI' added to the end of the reference to indicate 'Disney'), but it also shows that the watch was purchased from 'The Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California.', pretty cool!

$650 seems like a pretty fair price too. In the year 2000 (these 'Sports' watches only appear in the 2000 TAG Heuer Catalogue) the US dollar was worth about 65p, which means that this watch was approximately £425. Considering I bought my wife her first 2000 Series in 2004/5 for £650, that looks very reasonable indeed! 

I did contact the buyer to ask if he would ship to the UK, and also to enquire how long the battery had been dead inside the watch (eBay listing: needs battery) but ultimately I'd actually prefer a WM1112 without the Disney dial, and the promise of an extra £100-150 import tax on top of the asking price of £490 put me off a little bit. Ah well, I will keep looking and I'm sure one will turn up sooner or later.

Addendum: After I wrote this post, HoltzPlatz revealed that he had actually bought the watch himself after I had decided to pass on it. Thankfully all that was required was a fresh battery, and since he lives in the USA he didn't have the extra cost of import duties. So congratulations to him and thanks again for giving me first dibs.