SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Orologio Formula 1 Football Special Edition Quartz Watch

WAZ1015.FC8198

Here's a topical post (this is about as close as I'll get to the World Cup!), I just came across this one on eBay with the description 'not available to buy over the counter in any UK jewellers'. Well, claims like this are usually spurious at best, but in this case it seems to be technically correct as this one only seems to be available to purchase from Goldsmith's website (not in store).

You may rightly be forgiven for wondering what's 'Limited' about it, because I didn't notice at first either, but if you squint hard enough you can see that the dial actually has a football on it. Here, let me get a close up for you...

Pretty subtle huh? But all the better for it I'd say, and much preferable to those 'Premiership' Aquaracers and Manchester United F1s in my humble opinion (although the rubber strap on the F1s are neat).

The watch comes on a NATO and thus it loses considerable cool points in my book, but fair enough this is clearly reflected in the price and presumably they wanted to get this as low as possible because this is just about the cheapest men's TAG you can buy. This makes sense because this is clearly aimed at the football fan rather than the watch enthusiast, and keeping it under a grand and team neutral means it might entice the devoted football fan who wants to treat themselves to something 'special'.

Despite not really liking football (or NATOs, did I mention that) this is alright, it's a simple design that works well and gives the footie fan a way to celebrate their passion without shouting from the rooftops. Unfortunately there is very little information on this watch and I can't find a picture of the back, this is the nearest I've managed to get, but of course the wretched NATO is in the way!

It very much appears to me that there's a standard chequered flag backplate under there, which is a shame... but then again, if they are producing the watch to a budget I guess it's cheaper to go with a standard part. Maybe it has some sort of engraving lower down, though I doubt it is numbered somehow.

All in all then this would make a nice first luxury piece for a football fan, or an upmarket beater when you want to leave your Manchester United Heuer01 at home. But I suspect the majority of sales will be made to people who will only buy one watch and who maybe just want to buy into the TAG Heuer 'football' buzz.

The watch is available for £900 from Goldsmiths' website, or from about £600 on Chrono24. The one I saw on eBay was going for £196 last time I looked but it does have a fair few days left to go...