FEATURE: Dealer Clocks

If you've ever been into a TAG Heuer boutique or outlet store, then chances are you've seen a dealer clock on the wall and thought 'where can I get one of them'. When I was in the Cheshire Oaks store the other day one of the staff guys was telling us (I was with my wife at the time) how so many people ask if they are for sale, and now how there was a guy who constantly asks about the TAG Heuer doormat!

While TAG don't sell their wall clocks (such a shame!) a quick look on eBay will quickly show that there is a strong market for them whether they are genuine or not - and truthfully, how would we know? Clocks like this regularly sell for hundreds of pounds.

And it's easy to see why, genuine or not, they look fantastic. Sure, at the end of the day they are powered by a cheap as chips battery movement, but when they look this good - who cares? Many a time I've looked at these on eBay and thought about bidding, but never quite pulled the trigger. Why? Well... for one thing, there's always another one just around the corner, so for me the 'value' isn't really there. But I must admit it's getting harder and harder to resist, and I think this Christmas I might find a TAG clock under my tree.

To be honest I don't really understand why TAG Heuer don't sell them themselves, perhaps it's because they feel uncomfortable about selling a plastic wall clock, but on the other hand a lot of people clearly like them and judging by what goes on on eBay they are prepared to pay fairly serious money for them too.

I kinda hope this one's fake, because it's a little bit nasty looking.

But then I don't understand why JCB has canned all the TAG merchandise, the belts, the wallets, the glasses... just about the only thing you can buy now is a backpack. It seems crazy to me, people love the TAG logo, it's instantly recognizable even in it's newly revamped form and I personally love the branding on the rubber straps etc. Shouldn't the company be capitalizing on their brand? It seems backwards that the company has made the conscious decision to pull the brand back down to entry level status (ditching the haute horlogerie pieces like the Monaco V4 and the Mikrograph) but at the same time seems awfully shy about selling 'merchandise'.

Still I'm sure Jean Claude knows a lot more than I do about business, so I'll shut up now.