It's finally my turn to pick my top ten Formula 1's. If you were expecting me to be last... well, so was I! But anyway, never mind. I did this quite a long time ago and I'm still happy with my picks, so I must have done a pretty good job of it. Perhaps number ten could be switched out quite easily, but okay. The rest of it is pretty representative of my true feelings I think, and the top five or six are pretty much set in stone. So, here we are then... my 'TOP 10 TAG Heuer Formula 1s'.
10th - CBZ2086.FT8098 Calibre 16 Chronograph
9th - WAU111D.FT8024 Quartz Alarm Watch
Bit of a risk including this one as I haven't seen it in person and there a possibility I could see it in real life and think 'Gah, no!'. But I've always had a hankering for this one even though I'd never use an alarm in a million years (never stopped me buying chronographs though has it?). Love the monochromatic colour scheme and the grand date (which I no longer have in my collection since I sold my Grand Carrera GMT). I saw a WAU111D for sale recently and got slightly excited, but then I remembered that it has that awful wrist-abusing clasp which means I'd have to spend another £150 buying a different rubber strap for it...
8th - WAZ1012.BA0883 Quartz Watch Senna Special Edition
I think putting the Link bracelet on the Senna Edition F1 watches really elevates the look and it was a bit of a toss up between this and the chronograph. I guess you could argue that the chrono makes more sense for a racing driver's watch, but I prefer the clean dial which allows more space to put the Senna logo.
7th - 380.513 Quartz Watch
I used to own this watch. Why did I sell it? Not really sure, but the yellow strap was a pain in the arse and if I wore it with a hoodie it took colour from the sleeve. Also a 35mm watch that's brightly coloured looks a bit odd on me, so I decided to keep the all black 383.513 and sell this one instead.
6th - WAZ1014.FT8027 Quartz Watch Senna Special Edition
I currently own two Formula 1's and this is the first on the list. I've always loved the combination of silver aluminium bezel with the coated case and the oddly patterned rubber strap sets it off perfectly. Unusually the dial is a bit of a weak link here and the red hands do look a bit 'plastic'. Worst of all the '12' and '6' numerals are filled with some dark grey lume and unless you fire a torch at it you're never likely to see them glow (and even then not that much).
I must admit I've considered selling this several times, but have never gone through with it and when I wear it I tend to change my mind pretty quickly. I don't know if I will keep it forever, but for now it's staying and I probably wouldn't replace it with anything other than number 1 or 2 on this list.
5th - WAH1314.BA0867 Ladies Quartz Watch
4th - 383.513 Quartz Watch
The 383.513 was the very first original Formula 1 I bought and the very last one I sold. I must admit I was in two minds about selling and I only really listed it to see what would happen (post Kith). But at 35mm the watch was undoubtedly too small for me and when someone offered me 3.5x what I paid for it six years prior, I thought maybe it was time to let it go.
I have since seen them available for closer to what I paid from Japan and pondered a re-buy, but none of them are in the condition mine was and it won't be any bigger than it was last time. I think the fact that I let it go is telling too, buying back watches you've sold rarely seems to work for anyone long term... it's still a very cool watch though.
3rd - WAZ101A.BA0842 Quartz Watch
You might be surprised perhaps that my indescribably perfect orange dial Formula 1 three hander isn't occupying the number one spot in this list. But, hard as it is to believe there are two watches I feel deserving of even more praise. And, it must be said, my orange F1 is only 'perfect' because I bought the BA0842 bracelet for it; the strap it comes with looks good, but feels about as luxurious as a handjob with a piece of dry toast!
My good friend Jim Dollare$ owns this particular watch and I must confess I've always, always wanted one since I saw it in the window of Steffans back in 2018. I've thought about it so many times, and every time one pops up on Watchfinder it sets me off again. But the thing is... now I own the CBN2A1E Carrera and this basically looks a lot like that, so it doesn't really make sense to own both.
This was the very first 'Red Bull' Formula 1 and they really hit the ball out of the park in a way they've never come close to repeating. Sure, the watch doesn't really represent Red Bull in any meaningful way, but the combination of blue, white and red is much more aesthetically pleasing than any combination of purple, blue, black, red and yellow ever could. The back plate has the Red Bull logo on it and that's really all you need, and this watch would be a winner with or without the Red Bull association as far as I'm concerned.
1st - WAZ1117.FT8023 Quartz Watch Alec Monopoly L/E
If I have any regrets after ten years in the watch collecting game, number uno is not buying the original Alec Monopoly F1 from the website for £1000 when I had the chance. Hard to believe that this 200 piece limited edition was just £1000 when it was new, but that's watchflation for you. Annoyingly I know I will never own this watch now because the prices for authentic ones are ridiculous and anything affordable is almost certainly fake. There are plenty on eBay of course, but I'm not that stupid!
Objectively, the watch is nothing special, the strap is a bit crap (same one I originally bought for my orange dial WAZ101A before I saw sense and got the bracelet) but the dial is FAN.TAS.TIC. What a pity the non-limited second version with the white background sucked by comparison.
Does this deserve to beat out the Red Bull Special Edition to first place? I think it does. It's so unique and special and I would love to own one. I probably wouldn't even wear it (much), but having seen Alec's studio at the TAG Heuer manufacture when I visited La Chaux De Fonds it would be a very special watch in my collection.
Maybe one day Watchfinder will get one and I will splurge on it? But I've never seen one on there... makes me wonder if they are steering clear themselves? Can't say I'd blame them.
Okay, we have two more 'TOP 10s' to bring you and then it will be time for the ultimate list! Not quite sure how that's going to play out given that I haven't been adding up as we went along, lets hope there's more than three watches that appear in more than one list, haha.
In the meantime, you can check out all the other TOP 10 Formula 1 posts by clicking on the link below.
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