WBP2150 WBP2151 WBP2450 WBP2451 WBP5150 WBP5152
I think it's fair to say that gold, and two-tone in particular, is not everyone's cup of tea. So I just knew that certain members of the C.O.C.O. Council would fire back some pretty low scores when I sent these out for scoring. However, I personally own two or three two-tone watches (I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go and check) so I can appreciate them for what they are, though I have to admit I don't think I would ever buy one brand new.
The problem is though, trying to find a pre-owned two-tone watch in good condition is tough, because gold is very soft and so no matter how careful you are it will always pick up scratches. And for some reason people who sell their two-tone watches always seem to be clumsy types, or maybe they sell them because they didn't realise how easily they were gonna scratch up? Who knows, but it feels like these have been a long time coming. Maybe they had big stocks of the previous two-tone blue dial Aquaracer they needed to shift before letting these out of the box?
WBP2151.FT6199
So altogether there are six new models, and this represents the largest group of watches we will be looking at from Watches & Wonders 2023. Let's look at the two-tone models first, and basically these are just the standard steel models with a solid 18K yellow or rose gold bezel insert and crown. As you might expect this adds considerably to the price, with the women's models rising from £2950 to £4100 (an increase of £1150) and the men's models increasing by £1900 from £2500 to £4400.
Now to be honest, I don't really know how much gold costs or how much gold it takes to make a crown and a bezel insert. But that seems like one hell of a jump to me. Let's just remember that in 2020 the two-tone (on a bracelet) WBD2120 Aquaracer was approximately £700 more than the steel WBD2112, but then the WBD2120 was only £2495 back then so percentage wise I guess it might not be quite as outrageous as it seems...
WBP2150.FT6199
Ultimately, whinging about prices is a fruitless exercise. Prices are up all around, we all know this. But watch prices in particular seem to be verging on the ridiculous. We've recently had a price rise and the so called 'Steve McQueen' Monaco is now almost £7000... with a Sellita movement. That's insane! Seven years ago when the (frankly awesome) Carrera Heuer 01 Skeleton with a black titanium case launched it was £4000... no wonder Bernard Arnault is the world's richest man.
Just think about that for a second. The world's riches man isn't Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk or Bill Gates, it's Bernard Arnault. So forget about tech companies, if you wanna get rich what you need to sell is handbags, jewellery and watches. Which kind of makes sense if you think about it, I mean... we all have a collective brain malfunction when it comes to watches, don't we? We're all slightly embarrassed when a non-watch person asks how much our watch costs and we know they are going to 'judge' us when we tell them. But we still buy them and justify the cost to ourselves. And so it is with gold and two-tone watches, only more so, but if you like them then you like them.
WBP2150.FT6210 WBP2151.FT6199
Do these watches look good though? Well, it's hard to say. I've barely seen any really decent photographs of them and the renders look fairly uninspiring... but I do feel like I'm tending towards the rose gold and black, which wasn't what I initially expected. My experience of trying on two tone watches suggests that an awful lot will depend on the exact tone of the gold and we won't really know that until we get to see them in person. I hate to use that particular cliché again, but in this case it really is most likely the deciding factor. I do quite like the combination of two-tone and rubber straps, but I can imagine not everyone is going to like that, especially those people that love to rag on TAG Heuer for mimicking Hublot.
WBP2451.FT6200
As for the ladies models (and at 30mm I think it's safe to say without fear of contradiction that these are ladies models), well my wife certainly doesn't think the gold adds anything, in fact considering she's pondering buying one of the steel models in the near future (maybe blue, maybe green, maybe... another colour that's on the horizon) she slated these pretty hard with a 3/10 score across the board.
WBP5152.FT6199
Now, it seems the world wasn't expecting a solid gold Aquaracer from TAG Heuer, and had I not already known about it then probably I would have been a little surprised too. But in actual fact this isn't the first time TAG Heuer have bestowed the Midas touch upon their principal diver (albeit the last time they did it was still called the 2000 Series, or more precisely the 2000 Exclusive). That was a long time ago mind you, circa 2000/2001 and if you had the coin you could also have it with a baguette diamond bezel and hour markers.
WN5140.BG0351
What a beauty, eh! Wouldn't mind getting hold of one of those to be honest, especially with a full gold bracelet. Back then this would have set you back £8650, which equates to about £18,000 in 2023. But, of course, this came on a solid gold bracelet and the new models come on rubber, so there is a LOT less gold in these new ones which are priced at £16050.
I quite like the new solid gold ones to be honest, but even if I had sixteen grand burning a hole in my pocket I wouldn't buy one for one simple reason. The black crown. What the hell where they thinking? Okay, on the black dial version it looks 'okayish' because it kinda goes with the dial, and because these watches have a black clasp... but on the blue one it looks ridiculous. I don't understand the logic here. Was it, okay we can't have a gold clasp and steel will look cheap, so we have a black clasp so we need to put something black on the watch to tie it in?
WBP5150.FT6199
Bonkers as it sounds I can't think of another reason. The two-tone models have solid gold crowns for f*cks sake. Honestly what could have been a 8.5 or a 9 for me in the blue, is now a 6.5 at the absolute best. What a shame. It honestly looks so bad, like they were trying to save a couple of bucks (which is the last thing you want on a baller watch like this). The ironic thing is they finally took the cheap-looking black pushers off the new Gulf F1... and they put them on here instead?
But at least these watches feature a new movement, the TH31-00 which has been developed in conjunction with AMT (still part of the Selitta movement company). No doubt it will be marketed as 'in-house' because that's what Swiss brands do, but at least you aren't getting the troublesome Calibre Cinqo in your £16,000 watch and that's gotta be a good thing.
Generally speaking I always think one should reserve judgement on new releases, because it's funny how things grow on you over time or how your feelings change. I didn't much like the 40mm Aquaracers when they came out, but in the next couple of weeks I am 99% certain I am going to be buying a green dial one. But somehow I don't think I'm going to be looking back on the blue/gold Aquaracer in a year and thinking - you know, maybe TAG Heuer was right about that black crown.
It seems I'm not the only one who has a problem with it either, let's see what the esteemed Council of Considered Opinion have to say about these new Aquaracers...
WBP2150/WBP2151/WBP2450/WBP2451: 3/10 - For me the dreadful two tone negates all the good points (diamonds, beautiful dials and reasonably nice looking straps) on both versions. Such a shame! It could be sorted quite easily with a black ceramic or DLC coated case, now that would look amazing!
WBP5152: 8/10 - I give the blue/yellow gold watch an 8. It would be like leveling up from my steel blue AR. I can imagine wearing this watch could be much fun (depending on the surroundings), and I could look at the color combination for hours and hours.
WBP2150/WBP2151/WBP2450/WBP2451/WBP5150/WBP5152: 5/10 - They do nothing for me whatsoever, but there is nothing that would make me hate them either, other than they are so GOLD!!
WBP2150: 5/10. WBP2151: 6/10. WBP2450/WBP2451: 4/10. WBP5150/WBP5152: 5/10 - Not sure who’s asking for some gold on an Aquaracer? I hope they get much better looking in person. Renders don’t do much for me at all.
WBP2150: 5/10 - I do like the blue / gold combo but the silver throws it a bit off for me. WBP2151: 6/10 - IMO this is the better of the two. Nice strap. Glad they got rid of the cyclops. WBP2450: 5/10 - Again too much going on here for my liking. The dial is beautiful though, on its own. WBP2451: 4/10 -For me quite dull looking, for a woman's piece. WBP5152: 7/10 - Gold and blue go very nicely here. Too blingy for me, but the best of the bunch IMO. I am in the market for an Aquaracer but none of these really call out to me. WBP5150: 7/10 - Also nice with the black dial.
WBP2150/WBP2151: 7/10 - It's just a better Aquaracer with the date on 6 o'clock without the cyclops (which was everybody wanted). WBP2450/WBP2451: 7/10 - I applaud their willingness to make an automatic women's Aquaracer with diamonds. Normally diamond watches for women goes with quartz movements in the Tag Heuer lineup (or I could be wrong, I am not really into woman watches). WBP5152/WBP5150: 8/10 - I just like it when its not two tone, but my oh my what's with the black colored crown? Still it's better than the two tone steel+gold for me...
WBP2150/WBP2151: 5/10. WBP2450/WBP2451: 2/10 (wife's score). WBP5150: 7/10. WBP5152: 5/10 - The two tone gold bezel models do nothing for me. I much prefer their stainless steel equivalents. My wife seems to dislike the look even more on the ladies pair (comparing the bezels to having gold toilet bowl seats). The full rose gold black dial works the best, the full yellow gold & blue not so much. However, I find having full gold Aquaracers a bit of an oxymoron, as it's unaffordable affordable luxury. Wonder if there's a full gold F1 somewhere in the future?
WBP2150: 8.5/10. WBP2151: 8/10. WBP2450: 5/10. WBP2451: 5/10. WBP5150: 8.5/10. WBP5152: 9/10 - Yes, Now we're talking TH business! I will definitely buy one of these. But not in the next 25 years. Future icons.
WBP2150/WBP2151: 8.5/10. WBP2450/WBP2451: 5.5/10. WBP5150/WBP5152: 8.5/10 - I prefer the rose gold over the yellow gold, but prefer the blue dial to the black dial. Would have preferred the rose gold with blue dial and strap combo personally, but also think the yellow gold with the black dial would have looked cooler too. Basically a Warm look and a Cool look. Overall a great bunch of Aquaracer’s once again and definitely remains my favourite range from. Shame about the diamonds, but then that goes without saying I guess.
WBP2150: 8/10 - Yellow gold bezel insert and crown is total sexiness. WBP2151: 6/10. WBP2450: 8/10. WBP2451: 6/10. WBP5150: 8/10. WBP5152: 9/10 - Solid yellow gold, for people who are better than me. Suuuperb! Oh my, everyone loves a good Aquaracer. The crowds go even crazier whenever an Aquaracer is presented in baller gold! These watches have one ass aspect to them though, that fume dial sure is shit, I wish the yellow gold versions had a bright normal blue dial. I definitely prefer the man yellow gold over the ladies rose gold versions.
WBP2150: 4.5/10. WBP2151: 4/10. WBP2450: 5/10. WBP2451: 4.5/10. WBP5150: 4.5/10. WBP5152: 5/10 - I prefer the blue dials over the black, however, the rose gold and black dial combo does work well. Would have given both the men's full gold watches slightly higher scores if not for the crowns! No idea what they were thinking there!
WBP2150: 5/10. WBP2151: 5/10. WBP2450: 5/10. WBP2451: 5/10. WBP5150: 5/10. WBP5152: 5/10: These all look like a half-hearted, "get it done quickly" job to me.
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