ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Fumé Dial' Automatic Ladies Watch

 

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Goldsmiths / Victoria Centre, Nottingham 23rd April 2022

After our visit to the TAG Heuer boutique on Clumber Street, my wife Rose and I made our way up the hill and into the 'Victoria' shopping centre. The first impression was not the best since the area near the door smelled inexplicably of fresh fish... I have no idea why since there was no obvious source, but it can't be very pleasant visiting Chisolm Hunter with the stench of halibut assailing your nostrils!

Once further inside the centre thankfully the aroma receded and we passed plenty of jewellers, albeit mostly stocking cheaper brands like Tissot, Gucci, etc. until we eventually came to Goldsmiths which had some more luxury-friendly brands in the window. Rose's eyes immediately fell on the 'smoke' fumé dial 30mm Aquaracer with diamond hour markers and before I knew it we were heading inside for a try on!

As per usual with these encounters the first question to come out of the sales-lady's mouth was 'Is it for a special occasion?'. I have to say, when you try on as many watches as I do this does become just a little bit tiresome, but I guess it's drummed in to them that it's a good starting point and if it does turn out to be for a birthday or anniversary then it's a green light to start ramping up the pressure on the husband! Regardless, they are only doing their job, and otherwise the lady was perfectly pleasant and helpful and that's all you can ask for really so I won't begrudge her that slightly tedious question.

In all honesty my wife was keener to see the blue dial version of this watch, but unfortunately they didn't have that in stock. They did have the light blue opaline dial quartz version, but she wasn't so keen on that one, finding the colour a little bland and more importantly completely lacking diamonds of any description.

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What I didn't appreciate from the photographs I'd seen of the fumé dial Aquaracer is that the centre part of the dial is actually mother of pearl and when you catch it in the light you get a subtle rainbow effect. I can't honestly say I was that taken with the diamonds, but Rose liked them... they looked a little oversized to me, but as you'd expect she did not agree with me.

She didn't really like the bezel though, like me she feels it is too wide and makes the watch look rather chunky. Also when I showed her my photographs she commented that it already looks scratched (even though it isn't) and that it's too flat and if/when it does eventually get scratched it's going to look pretty dreadful.

The other minor 'problem' with this watch was that it was an automatic, which (along with those dirty great diamonds) pushed the asking price way, way up to £2800... which is rather a lot, especially as Rose wasn't that blown away by it and she certainly isn't enamoured enough of automatics to pay a premium: anything but actually, since her only automatic watch recently needed the movement repairing!. 

But as we discussed later in the Nottingham Crowne Plaza bar (well worth a visit), this stands out in the window because at the moment (when it comes to ladies watches) TAG Heuer aren't really delivering that much excitement. With no Formula 1 range on offer and out of the ordinary watches few and far between; yes there is that gaudy looking Link (which I'm sure is a bit of a tough sell), but across the Carrera and Aquaracer lines there's a rather predictable glut of mother of pearl dials / diamond hour markers / diamond bezels and endless yawnsome combinations of all three. Still, I guess TAG would argue that they make what they know sells, and unlike my wife a lot of women probably don't have enough watches for this to be a major issue.

Interestingly there seemed to be more ladies watches in this Goldsmiths than in the TAG Heuer boutique itself, but this may be intentional, since perhaps it is perceived that women visit jewellers like Goldsmith to try several different brands of watches on, whereas maybe men are more focused on the brand they gravitate to?

So no new Aquaracer, but this little jaunt and the thrill of the try on obviously got Rose excited for watch shopping  again, because the very next day I caught her browsing Chrono 24. She wasn't looking at Aquaracers though (to be honest I don't think anything is going to top her green dial WBD1316) instead she was back to looking at Dior watches. Not the 'Grand Bal', which is unfortunately way out of her price range, but there are plenty of pre-owned ceramic models available, like this one above. Hmmm...