Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Launch Two Las Vegas Limited Edition Carrera Heuer 01s
CAR2A1G.FC6400
It seems sometimes that barely a week can go by without a new Limited Edition TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01 appearing, but for the most part (to me anyway) they all seem rather nice, and these Las Vegas Limited Editions are no exception.
This first 45mm model (CAR2A1G.FC6400) features black-gold plated markers and hands and a special 'roulette' flange around the outside of the dial and comes on a black alligator strap with red stitching and a titanium deployment clasp. This model is limited to 77 pieces and costs $6,200
CAR2A1E.FC6400
The second model is largely the same, but in this instance it's limited to just 7 pieces and costs $9,900. The difference comes with the bezel which is set with 64 x 1.50carat and 64 x 1.40carat black diamonds. There is also apparently a Las Vegas motif on the sapphire caseback of both models, although unfortunately I don't have a picture of that to share with you currently.
Perhaps some people get a bit annoyed by the endless stream of 'special editions' but I really don't mind them at all. In fact my main gripe (apart from the obvious one about not having the funds to buy them all) is that they all seem to be very market specific and no doubt these will only be sold in Las Vegas itself - which is fair enough I suppose, but it does mean that even if I did decide to spring for one I'd have to factor in the price of an air fare and a stop-over.
I know there have been UK special editions in the past and I'm sure there will be again in the future, especially now that TAG have their own London boutique open on Oxford Street, so I guess we'll have to see what comes along. Hopefully TAG won't fall into the cliched trap of thinking we want a Heuer01 with a Union Jack on the dial or a London skyline, but looking at these models it seems modern design is thankfully moving more towards the more subtle. After all, if you can make a tasteful looking Las Vegas model, then you must be doing something right.
I think for my money I would go with the ceramic bezel version, not that I have a particular problem with the black diamond version, but I really like the way the tachymetre looks on my own Heuer01 and I think I'd miss it if it wasn't there.
Friday, 26 January 2018
FEATURE: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer01 CAR205A.FT6087
As my war chest continues to slowly grow, I keep looking round for inspiration. I'm at the point now where I could purchase a wide range of Aquaracers and some of the cheaper Carrera models, and of course there's always the lower end pre-owned Grand Carreras... but, right now if I had the money I think I would buy this gorgeous gold-lugged Carrera Heuer 01.
Yes, you can level the same criticism at this as I have at many other Heuer 01's, that it's too similar to my 'original' Heuer 01, but in some ways it looks like a completely different watch. For a start the gold markers on the dial pop like crazy, not something you can really say about the original version.
Also, it very much appears to have a ceramic bezel, which mine doesn't. Admittedly I'm not mad, crazy about ceramic because in my (limited) experience it seems to to be constantly covered in fingermarks, but somehow with the gold I can't imagine it any other way. It simply looks 'right'.
I'm not sold on the gold bezel version at all, this to me presents a much better contrast between black and gold, and it has just the right amount of gold and in just the right places. Giving the watch a gold bezel seems to me to detract from the face, whereas this one accentuates the face and allows those gold markers to really stand out.
If they made this with the new leather straps then that would make it even more difficult to resist, as it would distinguish it even more from the Heuer01 I already own, but I don't dislike it on the rubber (which I know is a GREAT strap). My only possible issue, is that judging by the picture above it looks like the watch is fitted with a silver buckle... please tell me this isn't so? If so, I would have to sort that out straight away, because that would be horrible, especially when they clearly have black buckles available. Still, I'm sure a dealer would accommodate me if I was willing to buy one of these, given the price tag of over £7000.
I can't remember ever really liking any other gold watch... ever, so this one is clearly something special. But as ever, it's a case of funding such a purchase, and (assuming I don't buy an Aquaracer in the near future) once I've got the funds in place, will I be able to resist the lure of the black and silver Monaco 24 or the Grand Carrera Caliper?
Thursday, 25 January 2018
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
FEATURE: The Alec Monopoly TAG Heuer Formula One
As the saying goes, 'hindsight is always 20/20' and it appears that in the case of the Alec Monopoly Limited Edition that holds especially true.
When the watch was launched a month or two ago, I was undecided. I kinda liked it, but wasn't prepared to put my money where my mouth was, partly because I didn't want another basic quartz Formula One and partly because I wasn't entirely sure how it was going to fair on the second hand market. Indeed, I must admit I was rather hoping one of the 200 pieces might rock up on Watchfinder at some point for £800 or so...
Well, it appears that hope is somewhat forlorn, because while the watches have been turning up on eBay (and crucially selling) far from taking a hit, they are fetching three times their original price!
Which means, not only did I miss out on potentially making myself a tidy profit, but now I will most likely never own one because I will be competing with the Alec Monopoly fans rather than the TAG Heuer buyers (who probably wouldn't have paid over the odds).
So the question is, should we have seen this coming? Did we just totally underestimate Alec Monopoly's fan-base and draw?
I must admit I was (still am) pretty ignorant about Alec, although I do remember seeing one of his sculptures in a gallery in Bond Street. I think for most of us TAG fans, Alec was just another one of the endless 'brand ambassadors' we neither wanted nor understood, and even worse this guy was just a graffiti artist who liked to cover his face and vandalize diamond encrusted Carrera Tourbillons!
Well, these days, as we know... a measure of one's success is how many followers one has on social media, and in this regard Alec is doing well with 39,100 followers on Instagram. Perhaps then, 200 watches was a pretty easy sell? After all, I dare say Alec's original art is probably out of the reach of most people's pockets so what cooler thing to own than a very limited Swiss watch at a very reasonable price (the Alec Monopoly Ltd was sold at basically the same price as the standard model).
You know, the more I look at it, the more I like it and the more I feel I should have realised this was going to be something of value. I mean look at it, yes I know some people hate it, and everything it represents, but can you point to any other TAG Heuer that is so unique and appeals to the market beyond watch afficionados.
I did kind of feel that it might be an investment, but I wasn't sure and equally I thought it might fall flat on it's face and I didn't want to take the risk. And as we all know, buying watches as investments is generally a terrible idea, so I erred on the side of caution and now I'm left to rue my mistake.
Worst of all, I think even if the price had tanked, I think the watch has grown on me so much that I think I would have bought one anyway... but now that's not going to happen. Which is a shame.
On top of all that, I actually found this artwork that Alec did that I actually quite like...
Still, who knows what the long term price of the watch will be. It could be that these early re-sales are abberations and the price will settle eventually as more come onto the market. Maybe in a few years it will be possible to pick one up at a much more reasonable price, but that will probably depend to a large degree on the career arc of Mr Monopoly, because I believe this watch will not obey usual watch rules and the value will be driven by his fans and not TAG Heuer fans.
Monday, 22 January 2018
Sunday, 21 January 2018
OWNED: The Good, the Bad and the eBay...
As we all know, eBay can be a treacherous place to buy if you don't know your onions, or indeed if you find an onion you haven't seen before and there aren't any other onions of a similar type to compare... and so it was that I paid a slightly over the top price for this Grand Carrera catalogue.
I'd never seen it before and there weren't any others available to compare prices, and after I made an initial offer of £20 (the asking price was £30) we settled on a compromise of £26. Well all I can say is they must have been laughing all the way to the bank. In the weeks since I bought this two more have appeared, one is not selling at £24 and one is not selling at £3.99.... seriously, I paid £26 for something I could have bought for £3.99. Not happy!
Still it's a nice catalogue, albeit it doesn't have any of the coated models in it, just the original wave. It's also quite a big book, about a foot across and considerably larger than I was expecting (knowing the size of most of the landscape TAG catalogues I own).
A couple of days later I came across what looked like the same catalogue but in portrait form going for £10. I messaged the seller asking them what was inside, I was intrigued because not only did I not understand why TAG would print the same catalogue in landscape and portrait but also this one came with a dustcover.
To be completely honest, I could have done with a few more watch pics in there... but it's still a cool thing to own and a bargain at £10.
My next purchase was a watch stand, I've seen many of these on eBay, but they always seem to be the type with the very small base - designed to fit into a retaining hole in the main display I should imagine - and I always thought they would most likely fall over at the drop of a hat, especially with a heavy-ish' watch balanced precariously on top. So when I saw this one with a very substantial base and another stand thrown in, I couldn't resist. I paid about £30 for this set, which was a close call as I bid right at the very last second and won. I won't use it everyday, but it will come in handy for photographing my watches and I plan to update all the photos of my watches using this very soon.
Finally I picked up this small form, 16 page booklet on the new Lady Link series. It wasn't something I was desperate to buy but for £1.50 I couldn't turn it down. It just goes to show not everything collectible has to cost a fortune.
Friday, 19 January 2018
VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 43mm Review by Horology Middle East
This is a nice looking watch, I do like the blue bezel and 43mm or 45mm wouldn't really bother me. I also like that this piece has the rubberised crown which my original Heuer01 has, because I really don't like the silver crown on some of these variants. The thing I don't like is when he turns the watch sideways and it's just steel, I certainly wouldn't swap my titanium case with the black coating and the red feature line for that, but still it's not the end of the world I guess...
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The 2018 Link Calibre 17 Chronograph
CBC2110.BA0603 CBC2112.BA0603
A few weeks ago I tried on the three hand Link for the first time and while it was a nice enough watch, it didn't really excite me. The dial seems a little bit empty and I'm not used to wearing watches without bezels so it didn't quite gel with me. Now, from their SIHH adjacent boat, TAG have launched this new chronograph version and I must admit it definitely appeals to me more than the basic version.
One of the things that's getting people excited is the use of the Calibre 17 movement which gives a dial configuration of 3-6-9, rather than the more usual 6-9-12 configuration you get with the Calibre 16 movement. I can't say this is quite that exciting to me because a) I already have a 3-6-9 dial watch in the Aquagraph, and b) I quite like the 6-9-12 dials, although I can understand that the 3-6-9 gives more symmetry and puts the logo at the top of the watch rather than the 3 position, which can sometimes look a little clumsy especially as there's usually a date fighting for the same real estate.
There doesn't seem to be much point talking about the case and bracelet as I've already covered this and unusually the chronograph model comes in the same 41mm size as the three hander which means everything should be identical to the Calibre 5 model in that regard. Having said that, there's no mention regarding the thickness of the case, and it would be unusual for a chronograph to fit into the same case as a non-chronograph (and TAG's website doesn't give detailed case information unfortunately).
I think the only reservation I have about the new dial is the text printed across the 6 O'clock sub dial. It doesn't help that that sub-dial is the smallest of the three and it definitely looks a little cramped, I get that the owner would likely want Calibre 17 on the dial as it marks the watch out as something a little special but the 'Automatic' line seems a little unnecessary, especially when space is at a premium.
The other thing worthy of mention is the date window, for some reason they've gone for white on black on the black dial model but black on white on the blue dial. I might not have noticed if they hadn't been presented together, but once you notice the white background on the blue model it looks kind of wrong, or perhaps 'cheap' (in comparison). However, on their official website, the pictures show a white background on the black dial watch as well, so it's unclear as to which the watch will actually come with.
Prices for the new chronograph are £3900, which is a £1600 premium over the Calibre 5 model. Also, TAG have launched diamond bezel and diamond bezel / bracelet versions of the 41mm Calibre 5 three hand model. It's not clear whether these are aimed at women or men, but since Cara Delavigne's TAG Heuer was of a similar size I'm guessing they are treating them as unisex. The diamond bezel version costs £5,100 while the bezel/bracelet version costs considerably more at £16,700.
WBC2113.BA0603 WBC2116.BA0660
You can find many more pictures on Calibre 11
https://www.calibre11.com/new-for-2018-tag-heuer-link-chronograph/
Thursday, 18 January 2018
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Friday, 12 January 2018
FEATURE: Why Does TAG Heuer Get so Much Hate?
It seems that some people never tire of talking trash about TAG Heuer, be it internet forumites, vloggers, and in some cases even other watch companies! To be honest I shouldn't let it bother me but it's so hard not to get annoyed by it. Usually when you read the comments under these kinds of videos you tend to get the same three opinions..
1) I've get three TAG Heuers and I love them
2) TAGs are overpriced shit, buy an Omega.
3) TAG is awful but Heuers are awesome.
I don't know whether I find 2 or 3 more tiresome to be honest, Omegas are hardly offering a great value for money product in comparison to TAG and frankly anyone who believes that Heuer are better than TAG Heuer with no distinction is probably just parroting what they've heard elsewhere or buying into the hype that's fuelling the rise in Heuer prices. How long before some awful looking 80s models with cross head screws holding the bezel on start going through the roof I wonder?
Then we have C H Moser, who recently published a humourous video for a 'Swiss Icons' watch, with at least some of the barbs being aimed at TAG Heuer. Strangely Moser withdraw the watch and the video campaign (the one off watch was designed to be sold at auction with the proceeds donated to a watchmaking fund) and put out a press release claiming their message had been 'misunderstood'.
(Fair's fair though, this is actually quite funny)
The people who shout the loudest about TAG being awful tend to fall into two categories, those who push Omega/Rolex and those who point out that you can get the same/better quality from smaller brands like Fortis for half the price.
Personally I have no experience of Fortis whatsoever, I've never seen one let alone held one, so I am not truly able to agree or disagree with this. However, the fact is, a good percentage of the value of a TAG goes into marketing, it's obvious. So you have to make a choice, you probably can get a watch of a similar quality for less money, but it won't be a TAG. And part of what you are paying for is the branding. If you don't think it's worth the premium then fair enough, but that's a choice you make. Buy your Fortis chronograph, it's probably great, but don't expect the man on the street to know the difference between that and a watch that looks like it but costs £150 from Argos. Maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn't... or maybe you just prefer the design of the TAG, again you have to make the choice to pay or not to pay, it's really up to you.
It seems to me that there are plenty of other watch companies who make watches that are overpriced, but for some reason TAG is always the target. I do wonder if it isn't a case of visibility though, after all TAG are one of the most visible watch brands out there AND they are firmly aimed at the entry level end of the market, which is a formula for hate if ever there was one. What better way for the 'learned' watch enthusiast to confirm their new-found 'cognoscenti' status than to dis the watch that (potentially) got them in to Swiss watches in the first place. To me, it's a bit like someone getting into extreme metal via Slipknot and then wanting to disassociate themselves from that band because they're 'too popular, too mainstream', despite the fact that to 95% of the population they are a bloody racket! I mean, if I had a pound for every time I read 'I used to like TAG Heuer until I learned about watches and then I lost interest in them', I'd have more than enough to buy myself a TAG Heuer strap. Possibly.
So anyway, I think the thing is, I don't honestly think this is ever going to change. The watch snobs need a whipping boy and TAG Heuer for reasons that probably stem from the gaudy watches and the name change in the 80s are stuck with it and that's the way it's going to be. And don't they love it... any possible chance to besmirch TAGs name is jumped upon, with people eager to make videos showing 'quality issues' with Grand Carreras, never mind that the watch is in fact 'fake'. Well I'm sorry but I can't see that it's TAG's fault if forgers don't make their watches to the appropriate standards and that you're too dumb to know when you've got a fake on your hands.
Like I said, I try not to get angry but it's not always easy to refrain from the odd acidic retort here and there... not that they probably take a blind bit of notice!
Thursday, 11 January 2018
SPOTTED: A Selection of TAG Heuer Watches in a Pawn Shop Window
While out and about yesterday I was walking down a road that I don't usually walk down and I walked past a Pawn Shop. As I passed by the window something caught my eye and I turned back and rather unexpectedly and found a selection of TAG Heuers Omegas and Breitlings in front of me.
First off there was a ladies Aquaracer (pictured above) with a white dial which is currently reduced from £795 down to £557. I didn't study it but through the window it looked in nice condition and seems a pretty good deal at that price.
Next up they had a CAU1116.BA0858 Formula One Quartz Chronograph for a seemingly very cheap £347... again I didn't really study it but from the photo it looks decent and that price is getting to the point where it would be worth buying to re-sell.
I must admit, I am sorely tempted at that price, albeit it has the same shitty-clasp rubber strap that my current WAH1110-0 came on, but then again I could always pick up another BT0714 pin and buckle strap, but that would be another £45 and realistically it's too similar to the one I already have (and my orange Calibre 16 CAU2012).
*I've since walked by again and had another look, the watch seems to be in good condition and the chronograph is running, which is probably not great for the battery, but at least it works.
Moving on, we had a pair of Link models, one a quartz that's currently reduced to £557 from £795 and a nice looking Calibre 6 model that's not in the sale but is still less than a grand (£950). The Calibre 6 I did look at a bit more carefully (albeit through the window) and it looks in excellent condition.
From other brands they had a few Breitlings, including a nice looking Colt Ocean and a Chrono-Evo.
Finally, there was a couple of Omegas, a ladies (but probably actually mid-size) Seamaster and a dressy looking DeVille, which both seem decent prices.
Going back to the Formula One for a moment, while it is very tempting, I really don't want to be depleting my war chest as it's just about the cross the £2K threshold. I think if this watch was on a bracelet then I would have been more interested, because then not only would I not have needed to buy a replacement rubber strap but I could have switched and changed with my existing everyday wearer. But as it is, I think it's best left alone, bargain or no bargain.
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
OWNED: QP Magazine
I've been reading QP (quantième perpétuelle) for a few years now and as is the way with these things, it didn't take me long to start 'collecting' them and buying the binders and (naturally) trying to pick up back issues from eBay. There's a lot to go at considering we're on issue #84 right now, but to me the really early ones are not so good. I had (I think) #7 which I read and then sold back on eBay, because it simply wasn't the same magazine to me. It was rather more 'technical' in the early days and more focused on articles about pinion wheels and the like, which is fine, but I really buy QP to drool over beautiful photographs of Roger Dubuis double tourbillons and other watches that I'll never own, and frankly the magazine has definitely come round to my way of thinking as it's now 95% watch porn.
I had collected all the magazines back to issue #60, and then a few prior to that, so I was rather happy to find someone selling pretty much every issue back to the early ones on eBay for £3.99 each (usual going rate seems to be about £6-8.00, and to be fair it costs about £3.00 to post one of these) and quickly bought an issue with the TAG Heuer Mikrograph on the cover and issue #4 (pictured above) only because it had the Monaco Sixty Nine on the cover, and I couldn't pass that up.
I also bought issue #40 because it had a rather lovely looking AP Royal Oak Offshore on the cover, and as it happens it also has an article about the TAG Heuer Monaco V4 in it, so that was a right result!
Having bought and paid for these three, the seller than contacted me and asked if I would be interested in buying more issues on a 'bulk' basis, so I decided to buy all the ones I was missing back to issue #40 and he offered me a very reasonable £30 for eleven issues. They arrived promptly and well packaged and I am very happy indeed with my purchase, although truth be told I have barely had a chance to look at them yet, but they are in excellent condition and that's the main thing (and honestly if I did decide to sell them on I would easily turn a profit, so I can't really lose here).
Q.P. is owned by The Telegraph group, and I really like it, but damn it is a frustrating magazine at times. For a start, it never seems to come out when it's supposed to, I remember picking issue #83 up at WH Smiths in mid September (my subscription had lapsed and they didn't contact me to ask me to renew it - I mean, what the hell, magazines usually prompt you months before your subs run out) so I made a note to look for it in mid-December. No luck... I tried several times and then emailed QP themselves to ask when the magazine would be in the shops and the email that came back beggared belief.
"Which issue are you looking for?"
As you can imagine, it took all of my resolve not to email back an extremely sarcastic reply ('Summer 2019 please...') and calmly stated 'Issue #84', to which I got this answer...
"It should be in the shops now, but if not it should be within a couple of weeks."
Excellent. I don't know what I would have done without you.
So I'm now reading issue #84, which I eventually got in very early January. One of the articles in the magazine is previewing a vintage watch auction due to take place at the end of November. Another, much larger part of the magazine is given over to promoting QP's own watch show in London in early December (Salon QP). The magazine was never going to come out before either of these events so what the hell is the point of that?
Let me just repeat that, they are promoting their own yearly London show, in a magazine that they know will come out after the show has finished. You couldn't make this up.
Also (I'm sorry to go on, but as much as I love this magazine it infuriates me... because if I was as shoddy as this in my job I would rightfully expect to be on my way!) the magazine is littered with mistakes, admittedly this month seems better than it has of late, but still there are mistakes. One of the most common mistakes they make is when the journalist has seemingly corrected a sentence but not done it properly and left both the original and the new word in the same sentence. For example, if you were to change "I sold my car" to "I sold our car" you would end up with "I sold my our car". And this happens a lot. I don't know who proof reads this magazine, but they are utter clownshoes.
The other mistake they tend to make is sentences just ending, and by that I mean they get to the bottom of the page and then when you start the next column it's a new sentence, who knows where the last part of the previous sentence went? Also, they do the same thing in the text under the heading, you know... the text that's MUCH BIGGER than the rest of the page, but not quite as big as the headline.
For example, in the current issue on page 30 there is an article about a new Bremont which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force with a trilogy of complicated limited
I presume the last word in that sentence was supposed to be 'editions'.
And honestly this is not me being picky and pointing out a rare mistake, this is just normal for QP unfortunately, which considering it's a magazine about a high-end product seems incredible to me.
But still, I buy it, even though it really doesn't cover TAG Heuer very much at all, indeed even the recent issue with the Autavia on the cover was a bit of a disappointment as rather than an in depth look at the highly lauded new timepiece, it was merely part of an article focusing on a selection of watches that are inspired by auto racing. Hmm...
Well, I don't know about you, but I feel better having got all that of my chest!
Needless to say, issue #85 will be in the shops when it damned well feels like it and will no doubt feature a preview of both SIHH and Baselworld... which by then, of course, will be a distant memory. Still, since I've renewed my subscription, at least I won't be trolling around WH Smiths every day trying to find it!
Tuesday, 9 January 2018
Monday, 8 January 2018
Wednesday, 3 January 2018
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