WAF141X.BA0824
Many years ago, on one of our first visits to Bicester Village, my wife and I saw a watch in the window of the TAG boutique, and while our memory of it seems a little 'unreliable' we've never forgotten 'the watch with the cities on the dial'. Pretty much ever since my wife has really regretted passing up the chance to buy that watch, and we honestly didn't think we'd ever see it again. Searching on the internet brought up absolutely nothing and so we felt like it was a lost cause, something to write down to experience...
Last weekend my wife and I visited Bicester Village again on our way back from a night staying over in Oxford (it was bloody cold, but if you go - I thoroughly recommend the 'Cartoon Cocktail Bar' in the McDonald Randolphe hotel (opposite the Ashmolean Museum), and in particular the 'Virgin Islands' mocktail, that is something special!), the primary objective from my point of view was trying on a Grand Carrera and the Monaco 24, to see if I could get some clarity about what I wanted to do with my watch fund.
Well, as I wrote the other day, while I do really like the Monaco 24, it is still a quite considerable pile of cash away and I'm just not sure that it's really me. And as for the Grand Carrera, I must admit it left me a little cold - especially at nearly £4,000. My wife actually decided to go look elsewhere as she knew I was going to be a while and while I was debating the Monaco 24 with the (very pleasant and patient) salesman, I didn't see her return and look around the store. Suddenly she appeared beside me and when I'd handed the Monaco back she steered me to the cabinets at the back of the shop where the ladies watches live.
Bizarrely, we both remember the watch we saw slightly differently, and neither of us really remember it looking like the watch that now sat in the cabinet, but it's most likely the same one. I urged her to try it on and she started to get that look on her face, that one where she didn't want to give it back.
Well, as it happened, being a good husband and all... I had been saving for quite some little while for our silver wedding anniversary in October, and had just about the exact amount of money that this neat little Aquaracer was going for. Our plan for some time has been to go to Geneva to celebrate, but we discussed it and I said I was quite happy to buy the watch for her... and so that's what we did, we'll probably still go to Geneva - and what better way to celebrate a holiday to Switzerland than a watch with the names of Swiss cities (including Geneva) on the dial, perfect - right!
Right... here I have to say, I've visited the TAG store in Bicester about ten times in the last three years and generally speaking I haven't been terribly impressed with the staff. From the guy who told me the date wheel was the hours for the chronograph on a Monaco 24, to the guy who told me he wasn't sure if the strap on the ACM Monaco Limited Edition was the correct one 'or just one we had lying around'... to the lady who spectacularly failed to demonstrate how the Calibre-S chrono worked (actually that's more forgivable because it does look rather tricky), to some pretty unfriendly and generally surly staff who look like they wouldn't give you the time of day. All of which was in marked contrast to the staff in the Cheshire Oaks branch who have generally been excellent every time I've visited.
So I am really pleasantly surprised to be able to report that the staff we saw in Bicester last weekend were great. The guy (I didn't get his name) who showed me the Monaco 24 was very friendly and more than happy to let me try on two of the most expensive watches in the shop - yes, that's his job after all, and you wouldn't think it was that hard, but on past experience it seems it is. In the past I've felt like I'm asking a huge favour when I ask to try on Monaco 24s and I really don't appreciate it. Maybe I don't look like I can afford to drop £5,000 on a watch, and yeah, I can't without a lot of consideration, but 'they' don't know that, and somebody ought to train them to realise that people with a lot of cash don't always show it. From my own experience I had a customer who always came into my place of work wearing a shirt that was literally in holes - but it turned out he was a millionaire and owned a classic F1 car, you just can't tell these days.
Also, the lady who served us with the Aquaracer (Sophie) was absolutely charming and couldn't have been a better ambassador for the brand. Honestly, if I was in charge of TAG I'd be asking her to do some training in the Oxford Street store, they could certainly do with an injection of 'charm' down there (starting with that doorman!).
Anyway, back to the watch. It's actually from 2011 and was made to mark the 150th Anniversary of TAG Heuer (1861-2011). It's a limited edition of 500 pieces of which this was number 411 (they also had 412 if you're interested) and the back of the watch has a nice engraving on it to illustrate this. The watch is polished all over with absolutely no brushing at all, which is nice as my wife's other Aquaracer (a blue dial model circa 2005) has a mixture of brushed and polished finishes, so it differentiates it a little more and looks a bit more blingy, especially with the ten diamonds marking the hours 1, 2 and 4 to 11.
The watch was priced at £1785, marked down from over £2000 (I forget the original list price) which is quite a sum for a very small quartz watch (I think it's 27mm), but with such a unique dial and ten diamonds on the face I think it's worth it. At the end of the day we couldn't pass up the opportunity a second time, not after we'd both been banging on about missing out on it for years...
So that brings my wife's collection to five pieces, four of which are TAGs. I keep meaning to write a post about her collection, so I'll try to get that done soon.
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