SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Series Sports Quartz Watch

 

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You may remember a few weeks ago I posted a 'Spotlight On' the blue version of this watch which was for sale on 'Est 1897' (and has since been sold). At the time I believe I commented on how unusual it was to see a 2000 'Sports' for sale on a 'pre-owned' website and they were usually to be found instead on eBay, lurking between £350-500 depending on condition and colour scheme desirability.

This is undoubtedly the most desirable colour scheme variation, but finding a 'quarter' Coke bezel 2000 Sports in good condition is a tricky business. Bizarrely, Watchfinder have not one, but two available at the moment. The first is dated 1997 and is selling for £500, while the second is 2003 and is selling for £625.

FEATURE: Visiting Two Watchfinder Stores in London

Another visit to London, which this time included trips to both the Capital's branches of Watchfinder.

We packed a lot into this day, not all of it Watch related. We did the Emirates Air Line Cable Cars, Tate Modern, Regent Street, Covent Garden... not to mention a cake stop at the newly redecorated 'Richoux' in Piccadilly.

But for the purposes of this blog, I'll keep it focused on the watches...

We didn't go to Harrods or Selfridges this time around, and we didn't go down Bond Street either, so the only really crazy-money watch we saw was a Richard Mille in the Canary Wharf Watchfinder. But let's start at the beginning, which means the Royal Exchange store which we've visited a couple of times before.

As usual there was a plethora of Rolexes in there, which I didn't really pay much attention to. I did have a look at some of the Hublots, but realistically the ones I actually like are out of my price range. So far as TAG Heuer goes they had about twenty pieces I would estimate... one thing that is a little annoying about Watchfinder is that they don't have the prices marked on the watches, which is fine with the TAGs because generally speaking I can take a good guess, but it's something that is a bit annoying on the other brands.

I only tried on one watch, and it seems I've tried it on before. The one that caught my eye was an SLR CAG2111.FT6009 (9 years old, no box, no papers).

CAG2111.FT6009

It was on offer for £1750, which seems pretty reasonable to me. When I saw it in the TAG outlet at Bicester it was on for about £3000, and while this one doesn't have a box of papers it is in excellent condition and actually it does look a lot nicer than the picture suggests. My main issue with it is the crown on the left hand side which seems to stick out far too much and which has quite a spiky edge to it (the crown turns the rehaut, providing a moveable 'remaining time' scale), I could feel it digging into my arm, which was a shame because for that money I might have been tempted.

You can read my previous 'On the Wrist' piece HERE

My wife pointed out an unusual looking watch in the cabinet, and she asked to try it on. It was a men's 4000 series (£575) and it appeared to have some odd marks on the dial. When the watch was taken out and showed to us it became clear that the marks were in fact reflections which moved as the watch was handled. I'm really not sure where the reflections were coming from but they made these odd part circles on the dial. I can only assume it must be some freak of the glass and the lighting in the shop.

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This picture doesn't really show the watch as it is, it looks here like it has a silver dial but in actual fact it's a sort of cream colour, which I thought looked a bit odd, but my wife liked it. Strangely, since my wife's wrists are very small, this looked fine on her. It didn't look any bigger than her ceramic F1 diamond spot really, which makes me think this actually must have been one of the 'midsize' watches, because I tried on a 4000 series last year and it was much more man-sized than this one.

Next stop was the Omega boutique across the way, nothing particularly exciting to report really (not that I'm much of an Omega fan anyway), but I did see one watch I quite liked which was a Seamaster GMT Chronograph with red detailing and white hands. 

It seems you can get a non GMT version of this for £4000 which rather surprised me, it looked like mega-bucks in the cabinet.

Leaving there we made a quick stop off at Lulu Guinness for the wife to dribble on the handbags and point out a wedding anniversary present idea. Then after lunch it was off to the Tate, then down the river to the cable cars and then to Canary Wharf.

We hadn't been to Canary Wharf for a very long time and it was just as confusing and incomprehensible as we remembered. We tried to walk into the HSBC building by accident and a kindly security guard pointed us back in the right direction. After some more aimless wandering (and to be fair the maps in there are rubbish!) we asked another security guard and he showed us the way.

Unfortunately, after all this effort, the Canary Wharf branch is obviously the poor relation to the Royal Exchange. There were a few interesting things in there like the Cartier Dive Watch, the Richard Mille in the window, a bright yellow AP Royal Oak Offshore which I liked and a few Hublots, but it was all a bit of an anticlimax. On the TAG front they had a couple of Calibre S Aquaracers and some other rather everyday models, but nothing terribly exciting.

So we amused ourselves looking at some of the most hideous women's Rolexes, with bright pink faces, diamonds and massively oversized cyclops... lovely!

I think it's safe to say we won't be returning. It's such a pain to get there and it's simply not worth it, after all that we didn't even try anything on and instead headed off to Piccadilly for cake.

FEATURE: A trip to London in search of TAGs (and other watches)

WATCH FINDER at the Royal Exchange

The first thing I noticed when arriving at Watch Finder in the Royal Exchange, was the three Richard Milles in the cabinet right next to the door. So I finally got to see a Richard Mille in the flesh and... I dunno, it wasn't as mindblowing as I expected it to be somehow. The dearest of the three was £92,000 but I'm not entirely sure whether it was new or pre-owned. I struggle to see how it is worth that much, but then I guess you could say that about a lot of other watches too.

A slightly disappointing start then, but overall Watch Finder was great fun. There wasn't nearly as many TAGs as I hoped (especially since they have about 15 pages of them on their website) but I did find a rather nice limited edition Monaco to try on (see separate review HERE) and I was pleased to note that the condition of all the watches seemed very good.

There were a ton of Rolexes in there (as you might expect) but I didn't look at them to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the Rolex, and besides everywhere you looked there were Audemars Piguets and Hublots! Pretty impressive stuff, although some of them were hideous.

WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND at the Royal Exchange

Next stop was Watches of Switzerland just around the corner, but this was quite a small shop and carried no TAG Heuers. They had IWC's, Panerais and a lot of Rolexes (of course) but nothing of much interest to me I'm afraid to say, so I moved on.

OMEGA at the Royal Exchange

Next stop was the Omega boutique back inside the Royal Exchange, not for me though... my wife had her eye on a Constellation, but I think she's since gone off the idea, not least because we've seen several examples in stores where the strap is already scratched. I think it's because the links are so flat, and scratch is going to stick out like a sore thumb. They had the James Bond Seamaster in there which comes in a hilariously OTT box, but nothing much else really grabbed me, I just don't really get the Omega thing.

WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND on Regent Street

Watches of Switzerland in Regent Street is a very cool place to visit, with good stocks of TAG Heuer, Hublot, Tudor, Panerai, Ulysee Nardin, Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Baume and Mercier, A Lange and Sohne and more. My wife tried on a Tudor 'Clair de Rose' and the Omega idea went out the window. 

TUDOR Clair de Rose (the rose is the second hand)

We were served by a very nice chap who explained all the options to my wife and allowed me to snaffle a Tudor catalogue (unfortunately for him the wife wasn't quite ready to buy that day), it was only his second day but he seemed to be coping well.

ULYSSE NARDIN 

Upstairs in the centre of the room there was a display with various random watches, including the most expensive watch we saw all day, a Ulysse Nardin. No idea what it was, but it was over £100,000, which is waaaaaaaaaaay out of my price bracket! 

As we moved up Regent Street we came across another Omega boutique but didn't venture inside. Omega really seems to be trying its best to follow Rolex up into a higher price bracket, but to me a lot of their watches seem a little overpriced. It wasn't that long ago they were using ETA movements, just like a lot of their 'followers' deride other brands for.

Actually London is odd, because it seems like everywhere you go you see Rolex signs and it's hard to contemplate just how many places there are to buy them in such a small area. But Omega is trying hard to catch up with several of their own boutiques as well as many other stores selling their products too.

OMEGA on Regent Street

The plan had been to get a train to Harrods, but the Picadilly line was in chaos so instead we walked down to Selfridges. We followed the signs for watches and came to a rather paltry looking selection of what (on closer inspection) proved to be a load of fashion watch crap... and for some reason Nomos Glashutte!

After a while we figured out that the watches we wanted were in the 'Wonder Room', and we headed over to that corner of the building and were once again confronted by a plethora of Swiss watches. More Hublots, Tudors, TAGs, Breitlings, Audemar Piguets, Rolexes, Patek Philippes, etc than you could shake a stick at. It was here that I tried on the 1974 McLaren Carrera (see separate review HERE) which was nice, but seemed a trifle pricey given it's cost relative to the Heuer 01.

THE WONDER ROOM at Selfridges (Oxford Street)

Our final stop was at yet another Watches of Switzerland, just opposite Selfridges on Oxford Street. This was the only W.O.S. branch in London which stocked 'pre-owned' watches, and while this was true the selection was limited to about fifteen pieces (which was a little disappointing), also there was no TAG Heuers in this store either, which was obviously another black mark against it. Actually, there was one TAG in the store, a pre-owned Carrera Calibre 1887 (see review HERE), which was in good nick for its age (aside from maybe the clasp not being a perfect fit).

WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND on Oxford Street

We enjoyed our day, but I must admit it was a bit overwhelming by the end. Imagine always wanting to see a Lamborghini and then being confronted by hundreds if not thousands of them, that's a bit how it was... I'd never seen a Hublot or a Richard Mille before, or a Ulysse Nardin, or a Panerai for that matter. I'd never seen a tourbillon either (Hublot - £70,000 in the Wonder Room), so it was a bit too much to take in and by the end of the trip we'd rather reached saturation point. 

It was a great day though, and if nothing else it's given me a certain amount of confidence when it comes to potentially using Watch Finder to purchase pre-owned items. In all honesty, TAG's presence in the capital seemed a bit underwhelming. The selection of watches available was a bit run of the mill, although to be fair, perhaps it just seemed that way given the glamorous watches it was competing for the attention with?

There is a TAG Heuer store in London somewhere, but as far as I know it's not in the main central part, perhaps next time we will make the effort to hunt it out and pay it a visit. I think that would be good.

ON THE WRIST: Monaco Calibre 12 Chronograph Limited Edition

CAW2119.FC6289

Watch Finder / London 24th November 2016

I must admit I was slightly disappointed in the selection of TAG Heuers available in the London 'Watch Finder', given the vast number available on their website. But I suppose in London space costs money and they don't have an awful lot of it, and what they do have is predominantly dedicated to Rolexes.

Still, I did find this little beauty, which is limited to just 250 pieces and is in superb condition. It's three years old and has one tiny scratch on the case just next to the top pusher, but that really is about the only fault I could find. The strap is in great shape as well, although I'm not really a fan of alligator straps. What you can't see in the picture above is that the inside of the strap is lined in red, which looks pretty damn cool actually.

I like the Monaco aesthetic, but if I ever buy one it will have to be something that has 'more' than just the standard look. This watch fits that bill, with a very cool carbon fibre dial, the red touches on the hands and the red stitched and backed strap. It felt nice on the wrist too (though I wasn't crazy about the polished buckle - immaculate though it was) and certainly gave me pause for thought. I've always thought if I bought a (non 24) Monaco then it would probably have a black PVD case, but this one was pretty special.

Not sure on the original list price, but Watch Finder are selling this for £3600, which sounds about right given the condition and the limited edition status.

http://www.watchfinder.co.uk/Tag%20Heuer/Monaco/CAW2119-FC6289/19890/item/33936