Happy New Year fellow TAG Heuer Enthusiasts and welcome to 2026. I am hopeful for a great year of new watches and interesting posts, but we'll have to wait and see I guess (...on both counts 🤣).
With the 'Crazy Year of Watch Buying' posts well and truly a thing of the past, it's time for my only truly self-indulgent post of the year... my annual 'Keeping Track of Wrist Time' update. So this year, like every year for the last several years I have kept a daily record of which watches I wear (usually one or two a day - one to work, one in the evening) and now I can present to you the results.
But first, it's time to quickly update you on the (fairly minimal) comings and goings of my collection. As you probably remember I have been slowly whittling away at my collection, trying to get it down to a sensible number. Twenty perhaps? Well, I'm still a way off that, but it is coming down and I have earmarked several pieces for sale in the near future, but we'll see if that actually comes about.
This year I sold two watches. First of all there was the two tone 2000 Exclusive quartz, which I must admit I really liked, but it just felt too small on me and then there was the 1500 GMT, both of which I'd owned for quite a number of years. I think I just about broke even on those, which is pretty good really, but I did buy them both quite well, which honestly is the main key to not losing money on watches.
As for purchases, there have been only two this year (so proud of myself for that, haha), firstly a blue dial Aquaracer Regatta Calibre S that Watchfinder were selling back in February that I got for a very good price and then much later in the year came the watch that I've been lusting after for the last five years, ever since I saw it in Selfridges 'Wonder Room'.
I speak of course about the gloriously imperfect Carrera Dato 160. Imperfect, because the date at 12 is very silly (and as I suspected all along - most of the time hard to see), but I don't really care because the watch is otherwise utterly gorgeous. With it's perfect blue sunray dial, blinding white subdials and rehaut, and the cherry on the cake... the red chrono second hand.
(It's funny but the only Rolex I ever really wanted was a blue dial Yachtmaster with a red second hand, guess that's redundant now!)
So this is clearly my favourite watch now, right? Well... that's debatable. I still absolutely love my Grand Carrera Calibre 36 Caliper and those two would definitely be the first two I'd grab if my house was on fire (plus my H01 Skeleton, obviously), but as to which one I'd sell in an emergency, that's a tough call... especially since the Dato 160 is still firmly in the honeymoon phase.
Indeed given how late in the year I purchased the Dato 160 I didn't really expect it to come close to topping the chart (especially since the first month I was too scared to actually wear it - haha), not least because the GC Caliper is still in heavy rotation and because the Aquaracer Regatta had been on the wrist a LOT when I first got it, but it did pretty well...
Such is the pull of the GC Caliper that I tend to resist wearing it because I know once I put it on it will probably stay on for at least 4 or 5 days, which isn't great when you have as many watches as I do.
By contrast, the Regatta peaked early and tapered off to a kind of normal 'twice a month' wear rate after the initial buzz had worn off. I still really like it a lot and I don't regret buying it, but it's a kind of middling watch and actually, the one thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have button release clasp. It seems to surprise me every time and it's the only one of my three Calibre S watches that has an old-style fold-over clasp.
That aside it's a good looking watch and the Regatta function is pretty cool, especially when the second hand starts moving anti-clockwise!
Anyway, I feel like that's enough waffle from me, let's get to the results...
Still here? Okay then I will waffle some more...
You'd think it would be easy to cull the collection wouldn't you? Just lop off the ones at the bottom of the list. Ah well, if only it was that easy. Despite the irregularity of use I really like the Pilot, the Microtimer and the two tone S/EL so none of those are for sale... the Senna Formula 1 is on the chopping block though as is the 4000 and the steel S/EL. The blue Kirium has 'issues' with the chronograph so it's barely worth the trouble of selling it. The Aquagraph, Golf and Carrera Calibre 16 are all potential sale items, but everything above that is safe.
Unfortunately the market is in a hole right now and second hand prices are not good. Add in all the super fakes going for £700 and making genuine older watches look expensive and you have a seller's nightmare. To be honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if I still had all 30 of these watches this time next year, but we will see.
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