WAT1418.BA0954
TAG Heuer Boutique, Biscester Village / 29th April 2018
When I visited last Monday to pick up my new rubber strap I happened to notice a rather striking looking Lady Link in the cabinets at the back of the store. Amongst a sea of pale dialed watches this one really stood out with it's strong purple dial and diamond markers, and when I got home I told my wife about it and she was keen to know more.
So I tried to Google it (I didn't have the part number) and found almost nothing. What I really wanted to know was the case size, because my wife has very small wrists and the 29mm would be perfect for her, but the 34mm would be too big. What we didn't know at the time was that this watch was a special piece made for the Chinese market (which explains why the very limited information I could find on the internet was all on Chinese websites) and while that should have perhaps suggested a smaller case size, I just couldn't find out the diameter for sure.
So I contacted Tom at the Bicester store and he kindly forwarded all the details of the watch to me which confirmed that the watch was indeed 29mm. Actually I was 99% sure it was anyway, because I happened to look through an old TAG catalogue, and while this watch wasn't in it, there were several like it and the ones with numbers starting '13..' were all 34.5mm and the ones starting '14..' were all 29mm, but still it was nice to have it confirmed before driving all the way to Bicester. It would have been rather gutting to get all the way there and then find out it was too big for my wife's wrist.
The reason I say I didn't take enough notice at the time was that when we arrived today I realised that in the cabinet above were another set of similar watches, but of a larger diameter... clearly the 34mm models! Ah well...
The watch looks absolutely stunning and these pictures really don't do it justice. The bracelet and bezel are highly polished and the Roman numerals are quite subtle, but the dial is very rich and a gorgeous colour. The Guilloche dial changes as the light hits it and makes a perfect backdrop for the eleven diamond hour markers (there is no diamond at the 6 position because the date window is placed there).
I don't know the original price of the piece, but it was on sale today for £1365, with an additional 10% promotional discount bringing it down to £1229. A bit of Googling brought up a WAT1417 (which is the same watch but with a white mother of pearl dial) on offer at Iconic Watches for £1990 down from £2450. Given that this is a much rarer watch it seems to represent an absolutely incredible bargain.
The buying experience itself was great, my wife and I finally got to meet Tom (who I had emailed quite a bit), Agnette (sp?) and catch up with Liam and Sophie again, and we must have been in the shop a good hour before we left them to their busy day.
No comments:
Post a Comment