ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer Quartz 1/10 Second Chronograph

CAY111B.BA0927

Beaverbrooks / Leicester 27th December 2016

Looking in Beaverbrooks window yesterday it was actually quite hard to summon the enthusiasm to try anything on. A sea of steel bracelets with black/grey faces, with nary a coloured dial in sight. Take away the Heuer01 skeleton and things I've tried on before (a sole blue dialed Monaco) and there wasn't a lot to get excited about. 

So I picked this quartz Aquaracer, mainly because it was blue and found it nice enough, but not nice enough to get my money out. The first thing I noticed was how light it felt, it's a good sized watch but it doesn't have the heft you'd imagine. The second thing I noticed was the bracelet pulling the hairs out of my arms (an immediate red flag), but of course there is always a rubber strap version to fall back on if needs be (or if not then one can always purchase a rubber strap).

As it was quartz, the watch was going and I tried the pushers. I'm not sure what was going on with it, to be honest. It only seemed to count the 1/10ths of a second for the first minute and then it stopped. Also the pushers didn't function in the way I expected, with the subdial hands moving to random positions on each push. In the end I managed to reset it, if I'd been more serious about buying the watch I would have asked the salesgirl to explain the function.... it was almost as if it kept going when you stopped it and then jumped to the next time when you pressed the bottom pusher again.

The blue bezel is enamel rather than ceramic (so they told me) and it looks very nice with the steel case and bracelet, it certainly looks a bit more exciting than the black version which sat next to it in the window, that one looks too much like my Aquagraph. The clasp was okay, with a diving extension and not much in the way of micro adjustment. I asked if the holes were for adjustment and she said yes, but I'm not 100% sure they are, they may be the retaining holes for the diving extension like on the Aquagraph. Speaking of the Aquagraph, this is also 43mm but looks bigger than the Aquagraph, I think that watch has a smaller glass and is definitely a good bit thicker (which gives the illusion of being smaller).

I don't know whether I am a partucularly thuggish looking type, but I noticed that when the salesgirl fetched the watch out of the window she was talking to this tall guy who kept casting suspicious glances my way. Eventually he made his way to where I was sitting and when he noticed I was holding the Heuer 01 I had just taken off, his whole demeanour changed and he flipped into sales mode. It doesn't really bother me, I just find it rather hilarious. I suppose they do have to be careful, and on the whole I find Beaverbrooks staff to be agreeable and much better than those in Goldsmiths (or the Leicester Goldsmiths anyway!)