First of all, apologies for the lack of posts this week. I've been spending a lot of time working on the 'Gallery' blog, which I hope you've had time to look at. If not you can find it HERE. I've already posted over 400 images of TAG Heuer models, including strap variations, but there's still a lot left to do and I haven't even finished scouring the catalogues yet!
The gallery blog is viewable in several different ways (controlled at the top left of the page), but the best is either 'snapshot' or 'flipcard' depending on how many watches you want to be able to see at once. It's not immediately apparent but at the top right of the page there is a small black area. If you move your cursor onto it it will pop out and if you click on 'labels' you will see a complete list of all the part numbers and also the model ranges available. So if you want to see all the Carrera's you can click on 'Carrera' or if you know the number you want to look at you can find it that way as well. There is a search box, but it seems to be a bit hit and miss, far better to use the labels as a search function.
Now, I've been thinking about this blog and how to continue making it better and one of the things I'm thinking about is that it seems a bit daft writing 'First Impression' posts about watches which aren't new. So what I might do is change the heading of those watches which are older to 'Spotlight On' and keep the 'First Impressions' tag for watches which are new out. I'm also thinking that I would like to try and write more 'Features', and so here we are...
Today I want to talk about 'pricing', or rather the spanner in the works that is the Heuer 01.
I suppose before I get into this I should give a bit of perspective as to my viewpoint and where I'm coming from financially. Without being too blunt about it, realistically for me a luxury watch is something I can afford to buy every 1-2 years. I bought my Heuer 01 this year, but it involved a lot of eBaying and as my CD collection is a finite resource, it was something of a one off. So being realistic about it, I'm likely to buy a watch in the £2-3000 range every couple of years (although my fund is quite healthy at the moment as I have still been eBaying since my last purchase).
The problem I have is that I tend to like watches which are towards the higher end of the scale, it must be wonderful to be head over heels in love with a quartz Formula One (and I do love my everyday F1) but for me it's usually at least £2500 and up... sometimes way up (the only Monacos I really love are the ones that cost £10k). So pricing is a big issue for me, and many other people I'm sure.
When I started getting really interested in the TAG range, there was a clear pricing hierarchy which was logical and you felt you knew where you were. But then TAG launched the Heuer 01 and JCB told us that a few years ago this watch would have been priced at £7-8000. Which is great, obviously. We all want the prices to come down so we can buy more often, but it has caused something of a crease in the logic of the TAG Heuer pricing structure.
If the Heuer 01 had been priced at £7-8000 as JCB stated, it would have made a lot more sense. But of course TAG wanted to increase their market share and what better way than to offer a lot of watch for a comparatively small amount of money. I fell in love with it the moment I saw the prototype and there was never any question that I was going to buy one, it was just a question of getting the money together. I don't think I would have felt that way if it had been priced at £7-800, I think I would have just accepted it was out of my reach and moved on.
The thing is, that since I have bought my Heuer 01 I look at other models in the TAG range and even try them on and find myself thinking that I like the watch but it's too expensive. You may have noticed this creeping into my posts a bit as well, for example the review I did on the Carrera Calibre 16 Senna. It's a nice watch, I'm not crazy about the red on the top sub-dial but overall it's something I like and would have considered in the past, but in light of the Heuer 01 it seems somewhat over-priced.
I guess it's something that TAG will have to address over the coming years, launching new products and discontinuing old products that are now overpriced in comparison. I guess it's difficult, they can't really slash the price of everything to balance the pricing overall, not only would the customers who've purchased previously be alienated (due to second hand values falling), but the stockists would be up in arms as well.
Another example is the Grand Carreras, which can retail up to £8000+. I know they have been discontinued (or are in the process of being discontinued) but I've seen them in the TAG boutique recently offered at £5000ish (which is a bargain, relatively speaking) but they still seem overpriced compared to the Heuer 01 skeleton. Which on the one hand I suppose bears out JCB's claim that the Heuer 01 would in the past have been launched at around that price mark.
(Mind you, having said that I am considering snapping one up before they disappear completely - depending on funds, but then of course there are some Monaco 24s in the boutiques which are even more of a bargain... )
It will certainly be interesting to see how TAG intend to re-balance their product range and which watches will come down in price (or be relaunched in a new format with lower prices), it's a tricky thing to pull off without annoying some of your customers. I guess it might have been advisable to try to bring the prices down more gradually rather than chucking in a hand grenade, but I'm sure Mr Biver knows what he is doing.
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