It's funny, I don't really look at eBay very often these days, but every now and then I click on one of those emails they send you heralding '327 new TAG Heuers' and occasionally it throws up something interesting. Of course, every third listing is suspicious as all hell, but now that eBay are utilising the wonderful and totally infallible 'AI' to check listings I guess we can all sleep safe in our beds.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Sorry, I can't help it. Ebay is a complete joke and I would love to know exactly how 'AI' is checking the authenticity of listings? How is it programmed to do that? I mean, it's probably no more completely useless than a real person who doesn't know their arse from their elbow - but I guess they can now point to using 'AI' and everyone will be reassured.
Jesus Christ. I'm glad my eBay days are largely behind me. But anyway...
So this is something quite special, indeed something I have never even seen a photo of outside of a TAG Heuer catalogue! This is in fact one of the very early 2000 Series (the model that was eventually renamed the 'Aquaracer' in 2004) and first appears in the 1983/1984 catalogue.
Indeed I very much suspect this was a rather short lived model since it only appears in that catalogue and the 1984 catalogue and none after that. I guess since it had 'HEUER 2000' stamped into the bezel it wasn't so easy to rebrand it TAG Heuer once the company was sold and they started switching dials in the carry-over pieces.
Strange then that it should have a 'TAG Heuer' backplate. But on closer inspection we see that the backplate also has the wrong part number on it. A '264.006' is also a 2000 quartz chronograph and it also has a gold plated bezel, however it is a more conventional design and that model also features a gold dial. Quite clearly this is a 244.006 not a 264.006. Whether this mix up occurred at the factory or in some watchmakers workshop I guess we will never know.
Like most of these old 2000s this one looks like it's been well worn and the bracelet plating has paid the price. The 244.006 was also available with a slightly bizarre yellow/mustard leather strap, but I honestly wouldn't hold out much hope of TAG Heuer still being able to supply you with one of those!
You may have noticed that the bottom pusher is missing, which is a shame, and probably explains the starting price of £70. A few years ago I probably would have been tempted to place a cheeky bid myself, just to have one of these... but thankfully I've grown out of that now and anyway, it's a Heuer, not a TAG Heuer so it has no business in my collection! 🤣
The watch eventually sold for... £160.
Someone got a deal! That bezel is something else, though. This was a fun read!
ReplyDelete