At the time of writing this watch is for sale on eBay and I've been weighing up whether or not to bid again. I made a very low early bid, which put me in the lead for a day or two but since then the price has steadily risen and right now it's sitting just below £200. Only time will tell of course, but I can't help thinking it's going to shoot up in the next six hours and I'm reluctant to go too mad with the bidding because it's only 38mm and ideally I'd like one at 42mm.
But on the positive side, the watch is sized to 7.5" and has two spare links which means it will actually fit my wrist. I've seen loads of S/ELs for sale, but they nearly all seem to have 7" bracelets, which means I'm going to have to fork out for another 3-4 links, and these things are not cheap - or necessarily easy to get hold of...
At 38mm it's right at the very bottom of the scale for me, but it's still a nice looking watch. I know the two-tone is not for everyone, and generally speaking I'm not a fan either, but for some reason I kinda like it on these old S/EL models. It seems fitting somehow, being an 80s/90s watch and it's a bit less in your face than some of the full-gold pieces, although if I was going to wear a gold watch, then an S/EL would be a prime candidate.
There's something about the S/EL that I really like, it's got personality, for want of a better word and it's something I feel was lost a bit when the model was reworked into the Link range. There are some Links that I like, but there are also a lot of characterless, dull ones as well. It's odd really, in every TAG model range there's watches I like and watches I don't like, but no other range seems to have as many mediocre, bland watches as the Link.
The S/EL seems to lend itself to the two-tone look, with it's unusual bracelet. A lot of two-tone watches don't seem to pull the design off very well but this one just looks 'right', I think perhaps it's because the two-tone design is very equal, whereas on some watches it's more silver than gold. The dark grey face is a nice contrast and this one also has the classic red and green TAG Heuer logo, which is something my collection is still lacking.
It looks like there's some wear here and there on the gold, but you can't expect a watch of this age to be perfect really, especially a quartz piece that was probably worn day in day out. I notice theres no gold on the inside of the bracelet, I'm not sure if that's because it's worn off or maybe the plating was only ever on the outside? Sounds a bit mad, but who knows?
It would be really nice to be able to see this watch and try it on before I decide whether to bid again, but I've still never actually seen an S/EL in the flesh, so I'm going to have to base my decision solely on the pictures provided...
UPDATE: Well I bailed at £280 and the watch went on to achieve £349, which is still a good price I think, but for me I'd rather save the cash and wait for a 42mm to come along.
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