ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer Calibre 5 Ceramic Bezel Watch

WAY211C.BA0928

Beaverbrooks / Leicester 27th December 2016

I didn't actually ask to try this one on, it was presented to me as an alternative choice to the CAY111B (reviewed HERE), and while it's not much of an alternative seeing as it is an automatic three hand watch rather than a quartz chronograph (not to mention it's 2mm smaller), I guess they are at least both Aquaracers.., and I did ask about a ceramic bezel.

The odd thing is that even though it's 1mm bigger than my Formula One, it felt kind of small on the wrist. This seems to be a recurring problem for me with the 41mm Aquaracers, and while I know it does depend on what you are wearing when you enter the store (Heuer 01) and what other watches you try on at the same time, it still felt a little bit... little.

However, this isn't a huge problem as TAG do make a very similar version in the 43mm case size (WAY2012) albeit with a blue face.

WAY2012.BA0927

True, the blue face does give the watch a different aesthetic, but the extra 2mm makes the dial look a little less crowded at the same time. Having said that, I can't quite decide if I like the black dial / blue bezel look or not. I didn't actually notice it to start with, but now that I have I can't work out whether it looks better or if it looks completely wrong. 

Certainly the blue bezel / blue dial looks more... mature, a more classy, grown up look, but the black dial looks more 'fun', not least because the second hand pops better off the black background than the blue. Actually it looks like the second hand on the older model is more orange as well, as opposed to the new logo version which has a yellow highlight.

So I think, in an ideal world if we could have the black dial version with the orange second hand, but in 43mm and without the cyclops, that would be great.