FEATURE: Another Trip to London to Look at Watches...

Long time readers may remember that almost exactly a year ago my friend Rich and I made a day trip to London with the express intention of visiting as many watch stores as possible... well, we decided to do it all over again, only this time we really went for it!

Our first port of call was the Omega boutique at the top of Regent Street, and strangely enough I'd never tried on an Omega before, so it really was high time I did. I ended up trying on six different pieces, including the Speedmaster and Speedmaster 2, three Planet Oceans and 300M Chronograph. We ended up staying in there nearly an hour, which I really hadn't been expecting or intending to do.

I must say, the service we received in this boutique from Lin Lin was superb and seeing that I was noting down the pieces that I had tried on she offered to print me spec sheets for everything. I'll probably never buy an Omega, but if I did, I would make a point of going back to this boutique and asking for Lin Lin, she is a credit to the company!

Next we headed down Carnaby Street and happened to stop off at the Swatch boutique. I've never been overly sold on Swatch, but I know Rich likes the collectability of them and it was interesting to see the System 51 models on display. We didn't stay too long before heading down a few doors to G-Shock.

I didn't actually try anything on in G-Shock, but it was quite interesting to see the wide variety of styles and prices on offer. They even had some steel models that were over £1000 which I wasn't really expecting.

We popped into the Karl Lagerfield store on Oxford Street so I could pick up a little gift for my wife. It's a shame Karl has died recently and I love that his cat is worth $3.5M. Crazy! After picking up this cute (if somewhat overpriced keyring), we headed a couple of doors up to Watches of Switzerland.

I've been in this store several times, but I've still never been up to the top floor. I always head for the basement first since that's where the LVMH brands are to be found, and this time I tried on a couple of TAG Heuers and my first Hublot. Then we headed back up to street level and I tried on my first Ulysse Nardin, it was to be a day of firsts, with more to come...

Mindful of the long day ahead and our poor feet, we decided a brief stop at the Slug and Lettuce on Hanover Street was in order. I had ideally planned to get in there before 12 as I feared it might be rather busy on a Saturday lunchtime, but it was actually rather quiet and we passed a pleasant half hour in there before moving on.

Our next stop was Oris on South Molton street, where I discovered the rather exciting 'Dive Control Limited Edition 1000M Chronograph', a real beast at 51mm but one that you could actually wear due to it's very short lugs and non-flaring strap. Can't honestly say there was much else in the store I was interested in, but that one got a big thumbs up from me.

Selfridges was next, and after wasting half an hour going around in circles trying to find the toilets, we finally hit The Wonder Room, where I tried on my first ever Rolex. Not only that, but I managed to find one that I actually liked... which was a surprise to me, as I find most Rolexes hideous!

Also in The Wonder Room, we looked at a couple of TAG Heuer Monacos, a couple of Aquaracers and a Breitling Exospace B55 on a blue rubber strap. Our server 'Alan' seemed to think that Rich and I were an 'item' and he suggested we might like to 'share' a Pepsi GMT Aquaracer!

Alan was clearly desperate for some commission as despite telling us he was heading off for his lunch he kept hovering as we moved around the room, terrified that the minute he left we might buy something from a different salesman. In the end he gave up and I tried on the Brietling assisted by a truly charmless chap who demanded to know what was stopping me committing to the £6000+ Exospace!

I had hoped to try on a steel non-Offshore AP Royal Oak on this visit, but it was not to be, Selfridges and Harrods were a steel Royal Oak free zone, which makes me wonder if they are now playing the same silly games as Rolex?

With time knocking on, we crossed Oxford Street to visit the TAG Heuer boutique and catch up with the lovely Aneta (who I already knew from the Bicester store). There wasn't much in store that I hadn't already seen, but I did have a good natter with Aneta and managed to try on the new Senna Carrera Heuer 02T. Also Aneta told me they are expecting the Nanograph in store soon, so hopefully I will be able to see that in the near future!

From here we took a walk down New Bond Street (completely missing the Victorinox shop we had hoped to visit), before stopping off at Charbonel et Walker to pick up some hideously expensive chocolates (£95 per kilo, I kid you not!), good job I only bought a few...

After a nice lunch in Richoux on Piccadilly (if you like Carrot Cake, this is the place for you) we crossed the road to Burlington Arcade, only to find that at 5:45pm the shops were shutting up for the night. Next time we will go there before we go to Richoux... but that wasn't the end of our day, because while Bond Street closes at 6pm on a Saturday, thankfully Knightsbridge does not!

And so we headed into the Seiko boutique where I was unimpressed with the both service and the overall attitude. A complete contrast to some of the places we had visited today, especially the Omega and TAG Heuer boutiques which had been exemplary.

And so we made it to our last destination for the day, Harrods. It was a shame to see that the enormous Lange & Sohn display piece had been removed (perhaps headed to Baselworld?) but we spent a good forty five minutes chatting with Mahmoud in Hublot while trying on some very nice watches. And then finally a good little while with Harry in the mixed brands room where we had a look at the new Tudor GMT Pepsi and a couple of rather striking Zenith Defy El Primero 21s.

Needless to say I will be reporting on each of the 27 watches I tried on in due course, I will probably spread them out a bit though as this blog is supposed to be focused mainly on TAG Heuer and only 7 of the watches I tried on were TAGs. I've made a start, and the Rolex, Oris and Seiko reviews should be up soon...

I wonder how many watches I'll manage to try on next March...?

ON THE WRIST: Cartier Calibre de Diver Watch

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Goldsmiths / Meadowhall, Sheffield 26th January 2019

Whenever people ask me why I only own TAG Heuer watches, I always say it's because everything else that I really like is way too expensive. For the most part that's true, but now and again I come across the odd thing that, while not exactly inexpensive, is at least reasonably attainable. I've tried on a couple of Bell and Ross models which were around the £2-3000 price mark, and a couple of Breitlings that were more like £6-7000, but most surprisingly of all perhaps I've now tried on two Cartiers one of which I really liked (the Cartier Santos Carbon) and then there's this one...

I've been mildly intrigued by the Carter Calibre de Diver ever since I saw a photo of a rose gold version on the cover of QP magazine, in fact I saw one in Watchfinder (Canary Wharf) once but I didn't get to try it on at the time. So when I spotted this one in the pre-owned cabinet in Goldsmiths I thought now would be a good time to strap it on and check it out.

I didn't actually know it was available on a bracelet, I'd only previously seen it on a rubber strap (which looks much better in my opinion) so that was interesting... albeit I wasn't overly impressed with the design of it to be honest. It doesn't really strike me as very luxurious, in fact it looks a bit rudimentary... it's hard to explain why that is, but it gave me the impression that it could have come off a £500 watch. I'm not talking about the quality, just the design, it's a bit blocky and basic.

But leaving that aside, this is quite a nice looking piece, albeit it looks quite different (i.e. worse) in steel rather than rose gold. Then again, I have to say that the steel is infinitely preferable to the two tone version which really does look a bit of a dog's dinner if I'm completely honest. Some of you might be surprised that Cartier even make a watch like this, and that would be completely understandable. Cartier is a brand whose image is almost completely tied to the 'Tank' and the 'Santos' (which is basically a square 'Tank' anyway) and to a lesser extent the 'Crash', anything else they make is rather weak in the market and subsequently watches like this can be had for fairly reasonable prices.

Confusingly, in the store Goldsmith's price was somewhere in the £5500 region but on their website it says the list price is £5800, with a pre-owned price of £4495. However, Bucherer are currently listing this one at £7300, so unless this one's very old or the price has rocketed in recent years I don't know what's going on there!

Overall the watch was in good condition, albeit the ceramic bezel looked a little worn. I've noticed this recently on used watches with ceramic bezels, they might not scratch as such, but they do seem to wear on the edges. I don't know if it's possible to polish them back to their original state or not but it's worth looking out for if you are in the market.

This Cartier is water rated to 300M, making it a pukka dive watch - though I can't really imagine too many of these getting strapped on over a wetsuit, especially with the butterfly clasp fitted here. Both the Cartiers I have tried on have had these kind of clasps and I can't say that I'm a fan. I'm also not keen on the date window here, I know it's not unique to Cartier, TAG do much the same thing on some of the older Carreras, but it's never made sense to me. I'm also not crazy about the small seconds at the 6 position, and yet... overall, there's still something about this watch that I kinda like.

The watch felt okay on the wrist, it's not massively thick, but then again it somehow doesn't really feel like a Cartier somehow. It feels like any old steel watch with the Cartier name on it, which is not great. And I can't help thinking that if I was going to go for a Cartier Diver, I would splash the extra cash for the black/rose gold model. This one (above) is 'new' on Chronext with a two year warranty for £7940 and looks so much better! But then again, for that money you could get the Santos Carbon or any number of really cool TAG Heuers...

SPOTLIGHT ON: New Arrivals at TAG Heuer Bicester Village

Another update already, if slightly smaller this time. As ever, please bear in mind that stock can be limited so a telephone call is advisable if travelling a long way...

STH881 - Master Timer

List Price £1450   Bicester Price £725

STH880 - Rally Master

List Price £2955   Bicester Price £1475

WAY1411.BA0920 - Ladies Quartz Aquaracer

List Price £1100   Bicester Price £770

WV211N.BA0787 - Carrera Calibre 5

List Price £2400   Bicester Price £1680

WAH1314.BA0867 - Ladies Ceramic Formula 1 Quartz

List Price £1400   Bicester Price £980

WAT1411.BA0954 - Ladies Quartz Link

List Price £1950   Bicester Price £1365

R13JAC1120.00L - Brown Leather Jacket

List Price £1005   Bicester Price £505

If you are interested in the dashboard timers, it might be an idea to act sooner rather than later as at these prices they don't hang around for very long!

VIDEO: Heuer Skipper 15640 Review by WatchBox Studios

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Sports Quartz Watch

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This is a watch that doesn't get much attention, and yet I've seen quite a few of these floating around eBay over the years, often in less than stellar condition it must be said. The 2000 'Sports' was available in three colour schemes, this blue dial/blue bezel model, a white dial/black bezel variant and most popular of all the 'Coke' bezel version which features a black dial and a black bezel with the first quarter section coloured red. I've always fancied the 'Coke' but every time I've found one that looked good it was always about an inch of bracelet short, and I've never wanted it 'enough' to go to the trouble of locating extra links, maybe one day I will...

This one though, is available from Fine Time Watches for the very reasonable sum of £349 with a nigh on 8" bracelet. I have bought from Fine Time myself and had mixed experiences, the first time was great and I was very happy with the purchase of my WAH1110, but the second time I sent the watch back because it was a lot more scratched than it looked in the photos and it was advertised as being 41mm when it was actually 2-3mm smaller. To be fair, I didn't have any problems sending it back and I would buy from them again - just make sure you do your own research as I don't think they ever corrected their sizing mistake when they relisted the watch. Tsk, tsk. While we're on the subject of size this one is a little on the small side at 37.5mm, so if you're like me and have a bigger wrist you might want to bear that in mind.

All three designs featured the same slightly unusual Arabic numerals, which look okay on the black/blue dials, but look a bit OTT on the white dial. To be honest, I've never understood the 'sports' label this watch has, the numerals don't really scream 'sports' to me and the aluminium bezel isn't the most hard-wearing of materials, I guess they'd already used the 'Exclusive' branding and they needed something else to distinguish it from the 'classic' 2000 range.

Apart from the mark on the bezel at the 5 position, this looks in very good condition, and the price seems very reasonable, although it's worth bearing in mind that unlike some other 'online shops' like Watchfinder no warranty is offered with this purchase. Still, for £349 you can't really grumble, it's significantly less than I'd expect to find it on eBay in this condition to be honest. If I hadn't just bought my CA1212-1 I might have been tempted to buy this, but I'm kind of glad in a way because while I would like a 2000 Sports in my collection at some point, I'd really rather wait for a 'Coke' bezel to turn up instead.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500M Calibre 5 Review by EDC Gunner

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 'Aston Martin Super Legerra' Limited Edition

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If you are lucky enough to be able to afford one of the fifty new Aston Martin Super Legerra TAG Heuer Limited Edition supercars, then you will also be in for a treat when you take delivery, as each car will come with one of these carbon Carrera Heuer 02s. Information on these is scarce, but then I guess that's not surprising given that you can't actually purchase one on it's own. I am assuming, given recent releases, that while the bezel and lugs are carbon the case is either steel or titanium. Given that TAG Heuer haven't as yet produced an actual carbon case for the new Carreras, they probably aren't going to go to the trouble for a run of just 50 pieces.

This is the first time we've seen an Aston Martin Heuer 02, the previous Aston Martin Carrera being a Heuer 01 with the 6,9,12 subdial layout. I'm not a massive fan of the first model, I don't much like the 'ribbed' case and I don't understand why they moved the TAG logo towards the middle of the dial, as it looks rather cramped. This one is much better and with the Heuer 02 layout that issue is resolved as the logo can be placed at the 12 position.

The gold rotor is a nice touch, though as ever the glass display back is unfortunately tarnished with some rather unnecessary text. I do wish TAG would stop doing this as it rarely adds anything and often looks tacky and blocks the view of the movement, which after all is the point of having a glass back in the first place. I guess we should be grateful the glass isn't smoked into the bargain - see the Nismo Carrera Calibre 16

As ever, you can't really go wrong with a black/red colour scheme, and this one certainly looks suitably sporty. From the limited evidence available it looks like the watch has a slightly 'phantom' aesthetic, but it's hard to say for sure and it's unlikely any of us will get to see one of these any time soon.

TAG have previous for this sort of deal, having given away a special 6000 Series to 64 buyers of the original McLaren F1 car. That watch was then brought to market with a slightly different dial for people who couldn't afford the £1m asking price of the car, it remains to be seen whether a non-owner version of the 'Carrera Super Legerra' becomes available for those of us with shallower pockets...

BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph

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I wasn't expecting to buy this one, in fact I wasn't even really looking... but at the same time I've always wanted an older Formula 1 Chronograph and I knew I would pick one up sooner or later. So when I spotted this on eBay the other day at less the £300 I was immediately interested. I had been looking at a similar one with a blue dial, but even on a (damaged) rubber strap it was way over £400 and for a nice mint one on a bracelet it was more like £650, which seems a lot for a twenty year old F1!

I'd also come across a nice yellow dial version on eBay but that was even more money (£750+) which made this CA1212-1 look all the more appealing, but of course I assumed it would shoot up at the last minute like they all seem to do. So I watched and waited, and come the last day it was still only about £320 with an hour to go, but I assumed it would go for at least £400-450.

With a coupe of minutes to go someone pushed it up to £330 while I was mulling over my bid. The pictures were good, but not brilliant and it was only really when I found another listing offering a similar CA1212-1 with really great photos (but a £755 price tag!) that I became super interested. But still I was undecided about the dial colour Ideally I would have liked a blue or yellow dial, but I really didn't want to stump up the extra coin, and crucially, this white dial had a full bracelet.

So I wanted it, but if I was to settle for the white dial I decided I wanted it at a good price. So I clicked on the bid box and initially entered £412, then reduced it to £407, then £392. I bid with seven seconds to go, which is always nerve wracking as I've lost out due to a slow signal before, but strategically it is advantageous as it doesn't give other bidders time to react. The page refreshed, showing me as the winning bidder with 4 seconds to go at £340. I waited for the price to jump up, but instead the seconds ticked away and I was the winner.

I must admit I was a little bit surprised, more than a little bit actually... and I think because I hadn't expected to win at that price a little bit of buyer's remorse crept in. This was exacerbated when I noticed that the right hand sub-dial wasn't resetting properly in the picture. You'd think I would have been super clued up on that after my 'Searacer' debacle, and I was already composing my return email in my head before the the day was out.

But, the description clearly stated that the chrono worked properly, so I tried to remain calm and reasoned that as long as the subdial functioned (which the one on the Searacer didn't at all) then it should be okay because I could reset it manually. Yes, I guess I could have contacted the seller about it, but I reasoned that as this person clearly didn't know much about their watch I'd rather they didn't start trying to reset it before I got hold of it!

So a couple of days of worrying later my box arrived, along with a separate envelope containing the F1 Chrono catalogue I posted about on Friday. Taking the watch out of the box I was immediately struck by the condition, which is pretty amazing actually. The seller claimed the watch had lived in a drawer for a lot of it's life and while the missing lume pip and a few light scratches on the top and bottom of the case suggested this might be a little fanciful, the condition of the rest of the bezel and crystal couldn't really be faulted.

And though I initially wanted a coloured dial, once I got close up to the white dial I really fell in love with it. The white and black versions have a cool textured centre section which the coloured versions don't have and that really lifts it in my opinion. I'm not saying that all things being equal I would have chosen the white dial over the blue or yellow, but at the same time I wouldn't pay an extra 50-80% for the privilege either! The white is really, really nice especially as it does have a decent splash of red on the running seconds sub-dial and also with the coloured dials you don't get the lumed Arabic numerals either, which still work surprisingly well for a watch originally purchased in 1999. Not to mention of course that the white dial does make a nice background for the classic green and red TAG Heuer logo.

These two pictures are from the other eBay sale I found (the one for £755), which really show the watch off well. 

The only thing I would say is that at 37mm it is a little bit dinky. I do have other watches around this size and they also seem a little small, but this one seems that little bit smaller. I don't know if it's maybe because we are used to seeing F1s in 40,41 and 43mm now, whereas the other watches like the Kirium and S/EL are of their 'time'... and so we accept them as they are. It's kind of ironic that one of the reasons I sold my 40mm WAH1110 was because it was 'too small'... but, well... I can live with it. It would help if my wrist wasn't quite so big of course, maybe it will look better in a few months when I've lost a bit more weight!

And yes, thankfully when I received the watch, the first thing I did was start the chrono, which functioned incredibly crisply as if it had hardly ever been used (the rotating bezel is also incredibly fresh) and on pulling out the crown I was indeed able to reset the 1/10 of a second sub-dial manually, which made me very happy - especially as I didn't want to have to send the catalogue back!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre S - Chronograph Function and February Date Change

The Calibre S movement is a very interesting one, and one that is unlike any other quartz movement out there. To activate the chronograph you press the crown and the hour, minute and second hands reset to zero ready for use as a chronograph. Once activated the watch can be returned to the time function if required, and a press of the crown returns you to the chronograph which continues to run.

When the chronograph is stopped the 1/10 and 1/100 of a second indicators spring to life to give their readings, but these indicators also have a second purpose, which is to display the date when the watch is in 'time-telling' mode. The watch is a perpetual calendar and will not need adjustment until 2100, here in this second video you can see the date change from a non-leap year February to March.

BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer 1998 Formula 1 Catalogue

This one was sent to me free with my latest purchase (more on that over the weekend), and I'm very happy with both the watch and catalogue. It's approximately 200mm square, and while it's short on text it has some cracking photos which show the various colour and strap choices available. I assume all the colour variants were available with either bracelets or rubber straps, I'm pretty sure I must have seen pretty much every combination on eBay at one time or another.

As for the buying experience, I can't fault it. The catalogue was sent separately in a cardboard backed envelope and it's in excellent condition. I can't help but think the seller would have been better selling this on it's own as I would probably have paid £15-20 for it! Especially since the watch was a bit of a bargain as well...!

Nice to see all the options laid out on one page there, gives a great comparison of what was available. I do like the coloured dial versions but they seem to attract a hell of a premium on the pre-owned market, especially the yellow one (currently on eBay for £700+). Interesting as well that the blue is the only one without a colour matched bezel, I guess the blue didn't stand out as much as the other colours, and fair enough it looks great with the white/red markings anyway.