FEATURE: Keeping Track of Wrist Time 2024

 

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you've all enjoyed the break (if you're lucky enough to get a break at Christmas of course) and you're ready to start another year of TAG Heuer enthusiasm with me?

So, obviously, it's that time again... where I reveal the REAL winners and losers of 2024. 🤣

I'm talking of course about which watches spent the most (and least) time on my wrist, and this year it's safe to say it was a bit of a walkover... 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

OWNED: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watches

 

WF1112.BA0511                                            WF1111.BA0511

I'm pretty sure no one will remember but I did write an 'Owned' post about the 4000 Series back in 2019, but since then I have sold my original grey dial WF1111 and acquired a white dial WF1112. This wasn't intended to be a swap situation, but once I started culling my oversized collection it was never going to be long before the WF1111 came under the sword. Generally speaking the 4000 isn't the most exciting model TAG Heuer ever made and combine that with the glued down bezel, missing green and red paint on the case logo and deteriorating hands... well there just wasn't a compelling case for keeping it.

FEATURE: Keeping Track of Wrist Time 2022

 

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to 2023. We start the year with everybody's favourite post... 'Keeping Track of Wrist Time' (I jest of course, it doesn't get any more self-indulgent than this!), in which I reveal which watches I wore the most (and least) during the year of our Lord Jean Claude Biver 2022. 

I know, it's a LOT, just keep calm and we'll get through this together! Haha.

Now if you've already read my 'Another Crazy Year of Watch Buying' post that went up a few days ago, you'll know that there's been a fair bit of coming and going this year. Actually a lot more going than coming... which is a good thing, because looking back it's clear that I had (and still have, truthfully) far too many watches to actually wear them all. In fact I'd be somewhat surprised if I'd worn my Microtimer more than 25 times since I bought it back in 2017. And given it cost me £85 for a new battery last year, that isn't a good ratio!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 4000 Restoration by Nekkid Watchmaker

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Pieces in the Latest 'EST 1897' Sale

 

Apologies to anyone not living in the UK, unfortunately this may not really be relevant to you...

You may or may not be aware of EST 1897; on balance I'm guessing not since they haven't really penetrated the market to the same extent that (for example) Watchfinder have, but they do have a considerable amount of pre-owned watch stock including a lot of TAG Heuer pieces. You may even have one of their branches nearby and not know it, because while they do have their own branded stores they also operate through any network of pawn shops, which means you can have watches sent to your local store to try on.

I have personally bought two watches from my local EST 1897 pawn shop and had zero problems with either. Both had a year's warranty (now expired) and both were bought during one of the company's fairly frequent sale events. I was very lucky to pick up my Link Searacer for the ridiculously low price of £500 (reduced from £995 - which is much more like it, but in fact still quite low) and I also bought my 2000 Exclusive in two-tone from them at a decent discount too.

This morning I got an email from them telling me that their latest sale was starting today and I headed over to their website to check it out. Unlike most pre-owned watch companies, when EST 1897 do a sale they don't just pick out some slow moving stock and drop the prices, they just reduce almost everything they've got - which is pretty silly when you think about it, but it does present some great opportunities for the potential customer.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Automatic Watch by Birth Year Watches

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series & TAG Heuer Classic Formula 1 Quartz Watches

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watches on Sharkskin Straps

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

HISTORY: 4000 Series (1991-1997)

 

The 4000 Series isn't perhaps the most fondly remembered of TAG Heuer's ranges, perhaps because there's an awful lot of two tone and gold going on. But having owned a WF1111.BA0511 for a couple of years now (and more recently a WF1112.BA0511) I have to say that I think they are much maligned. It's quite a smart watch, with an interesting concave bracelet centre link (I can't think of another TAG Heuer that has one similar), but perhaps the one 'questionable' design choice is the logo moulded into the bezel and case. 

My WF1111 has lost most of its green paint and some of its red and that's far from unusual (thankfully my WF1112's logo is still intact). Perhaps in some ways it looks better without the paint, although perhaps because of the red/green logo being so prominent TAG Heuer tended to stick with a rather bland selection of dial colours; light grey, dark grey, white, champagne... in fact the only option for any kind of 'impact' is the gold dial, which is perhaps a little too much impact!

At first the watch was only available on a bracelet or black/brown leather straps, but after the first year or so TAG Heuer introduced sharkskin straps in six different colours; red, brown, green, blue, black and dark grey. In the past I've always thought that 4000s on straps look a little odd because once you remove the end link you leave the top of the TAG Heuer shield sticking out at the top, but having now taken the plunge and bought a strap for my own watch, I see that it looks a lot better than pictures suggest.

The 4000 Series was pretty straightforward (apart from the 1992 number changes) with the original range pretty much surviving unaltered, with only one watch (in three sizes) added in 1994.

The 4000 Series was only available as a three hander, but was available in both quartz (Q) and automatic (A) variations.  

1991 CATALOGUE

The 4000 Series first appears in the 1991 catalogue and is issued with the old (XXX.XXX) references. However, the numbering system was changed in 1992 and all watches were reassigned new numbers. For consistency I have decided to show both numbers and use the 1992 numbers as the main number. I have also included the strap/bracelet reference as well, as unlike the modern reference codes the old six figure codes didn't indicate what strap or bracelet the watch was sold on. There is a chart at the bottom of this post which cross references everything, which I made while I was wading through this trying to make sense of it all, you may find that quite useful - I certainly did!

A note on sizes: I haven't been able to pin this down satisfactorily. I believe the automatics may be 40 and 34mm and the quartz pieces 38 and 32mm. The 'ladies' size is definitely 28mm and they only made them in quartz.

WF2121.BA0511 (695.706/511): Mens, grey dial, two tone bezel on a steel bracelet (A)

WF2121.BC0523 (695.706/523): Mens, grey dial, two tone bezel on a brown leather strap (A)

WF2221.BA0513 (695.713/513): Boys, grey dial, two-tone bezel on  steel bracelet (A)

WF2221.BC0533 (695.713/533): Boys, grey dial, two tone bezel on a brown leather strap (A)

WF2110.BA0511 (699.706/511): Mens, white dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (A)

WF2110.BC0520 (699.706/520): Mens, white dial, steel bezel on a black leather strap (A)

WF2210.BA0513 (699.713/513): Boys, white dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (A)

WF2210.BC0530 (699.713/530): Boys, white dial, steel bezel on a black leather strap (A)

WF1130.BP0512 (994.706/512): Mens, champagne dial, gold bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1230.BP0514 (994.713/514): Boys, champagne dial, gold bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1430.BP0516 (994.708/516): Ladies, champagne dial, gold bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1121.BB0517 (995.406/517): 40mm, gold dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q) 

WF1221.BB0518 (995.413/518): 32mm, gold dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1421.BB0519 (995.408/519): 28mm, gold dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1120.BB0517 (995.706/517): Mens, white dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1220.BB0518 (995.713/518): Boys, white dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1420.BB0519 (995.708/519): Ladies, white dial, two tone bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

WF1120.BC0523 (995.706/523): Mens, white dial, 2-tone bezel on a brown leather strap (Q)

WF1220.BC0533 (995.713/533): Boys, white dial, 2-tone bezel on a brown leather strap (Q)

WF1420.BC0543 (995.708/543): Ladies, white dial, 2-tone bezel on a brown leather strap (Q)

WF1110.BA0511 (999.706/511): Mens, light grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1210.BA0513 (999.713/513): Boys, light grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1410.BA0515 (999.708/515): Ladies, light grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1111.BA0511 (999.206/511): Mens, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1211.BA0513 (999.213/513): Boys, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1411.BA0515 (999.208/515): Ladies, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

1991 SELECTION CATALOGUE

This selection catalogue introduced a new variation on an existing watch.

WF1411.BC0540 (999.208/540): Ladies, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a black leather strap (Q)

1992-1993 CATALOGUE

Strangely, despite the number change the new strap variations featured in the 1992 catalogue are still given both old and new catalogue numbers. This suggests to me that perhaps these were available prior to the catalogue coming out and the numbers being amended? 

While most watches were available on sharkskin straps, for some reason the 1992 catalogue states that models WF1110, WF1210 and WF1410 were not available on leather straps.

 

There were no new 'watches' in this catalogue, only new strap configurations.

WF2110.BC0527 (699.706/527): Mens, white dial, steel bezel on a blue sharkskin strap (Q)

WF1120.BC0625 (995.706/625): Mens, white dial, 2-tone bezel on a brown sharkskin strap (A)

WF1420.BC0579 (995.708/579): Ladies, white dial, 2-tone bezel on a red sharkskin strap (Q)

WF1111.BC0526 (999.206/526): Mens, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a grey sharkskin (Q)

WF1211.BC0538 (999.213/538): Boys, dark grey dial, steel bezel on a green sharkskin (Q)

1992 SELECTION CATALOGUE

This catalogue brings still more strap variations but no new watches.

WF2210.BC0538 (699.713/538): Boys, white dial, steel bezel on a green sharkskin strap (A)

WF2121.BC0529 (695.706/529): Mens, grey dial, 2-tone bezel on a red sharkskin strap (A)

WF2221.BC0635 (695.713/635): Boys, grey dial, 2-tone bezel on a brown sharkskin strap (A)

1994-1995 SELECTION CATALOGUE

The 1994 selection catalogue brings a single new watch (only available on a bracelet) and more previously 'unseen' strap variations. The old numbers are no longer listed as alternatives, although it's not hard to work them out and I have included them in the chart below.

WF1112.BA0511: Mens, white dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF2221.BC0639: Boys, grey dial, two-tone bezel on a red sharkskin strap (A)

WF2210.BC0534: Boys, white dial, steel bezel on a black sharkskin strap (A)

1995-1996 CATALOGUE

The 1995/6 catalogue adds ladies and midsize versions of the 'new' watch released in 1994 (although I would assume they were all released at the same time?) and another variation on the WF1220.

WF1212.BA0513: Boys, white dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1412.BA0515: Ladies, white dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1220.BC0637: Ladies, white dial, two-tone bezel on a blue sharkskin strap (Q)

1996 CATALOGUE

The 1996 shows nothing that hasn't been seen previously, the 4000 Series is clearly coming to the end of its life and will only feature in one more catalogue

1997 CATALOGUE

This is the last outing for the 4000 Series and unlike some other lines which have one last glorious revamp before disappearing, all the brand offered was another strap variation, this time on the 1994 men's piece.

WF1112.BC0527: Mens, white dial, steel bezel on a blue sharkskin strap (Q)

NON-CATALOGUE MODELS

There are very few 'non-catalogue' models actually, just a couple of previously unseen dial variations. As I mentioned earlier the dial colours on the 4000s are pretty conservative and it comes as something of a novelty to bring up black and blue dials as being unusual models!

WF1113.BA0511: Mens, blue dial, steel bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1122.BB0517: Mens, black dial, two-tone bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1422.BB0519: Ladies, black dial, two tone bezel on a bracelet (Q)

WF1413.BA0515: Ladies, blue dial, steel bezel, case and bracelet (Q)

Having said that, there are a LOT of watch/strap combinations that were not shown in the catalogues, so I decided to compile a chart showing every combination that I have discovered....

And at this point I must give a huge 'THANK YOU' to Tom at TAG Heuer Bicester Village who helped me so much with gathering this information for you.

The watches highlighted in yellow are the ones we have already seen featured in the catalogues, as you can see there are many, many more available!

Okay, that's it for this time, next up will be the 3000 Series and don't forget to check out the other posts in this series. 

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GALLERY: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch