ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer 500M Calibre 5 Gold Bezel

WAJ2182.FT6015

TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 16th July 2018

It's a funny old game this watch collecting lark, I can remember a time when I wouldn't look twice at these 500M divers, and then I tried on a grey dial Calibre 5 and ended buying the quartz version! Not only that, it's gone from being one of my least favourite TAG designs to one of the stars of my collection. So much so that I'm struggling to keep it off my wrist these days...

But I never thought I'd fall for one of these. Indeed, up until today these gold bezel Aquaracers were completely verboten - but then I saw this and that all changed in a hurry. For some reason, and this sounds completely stupid when you say it out loud... it never kind of clicked with my simple brain that this bezel is actually gold. Yes, I know - what am I like... I don't know if it was because I didn't appreciate that the list price was £4000+, but I just rather foolishly dismissed it as 'gold coloured' for some reason, and to be honest I was so disinterested in it that I didn't really bother looking at one properly. Of course, now that I've held it and seen it up close it's plain that it is indeed gold, and not just any old gold plating or even capped gold but solid 18K rose gold with applied markers!

Honestly, I'm really quite shocked by jut how much I like this watch in person, it really is pretty cool and that's from someone who doesn't really tend towards the blingy. I guess what this is for me is an affordable alternative to the Rolex Sea Master which shares some of the same characteristics - gold and black colour scheme and the rubber strap being the most obvious. Actually my lust for the Sea Master only lasted until I found out the price, and then when I saw one in a window it looked really small and unimpressive... which, after all, is probably a good thing because there's no way can I afford one of those.

Rolex Sea Master - £18,360

Despite the fact that both these watches are rose gold, as you can see from the pictures it's far less obvious on the TAG. In the cabinet it looks like yellow gold, until you put it next to a watch that is actually yellow gold, but even then it looks 'different' but definitely not the 'pink' tone you expect. Looking at pictures of the Aquaracer on the internet it's amazing how much the 'pinkness' varies, so if you're planning to buy one of these it might be worth asking to take the watch outside and see it in daylight. Just a thought...

Oddly, the pictures I found on the internet show the watch with a clear display back, but the one in Bicester Village actually has quite a dark smoked glass fitted. While it's not as good from a visibility point of view, I think it looks a bit better, though it does make it look as if the rotor is black...which I assume it isn't.

Bicester Village model with smoked back glass...

The watch is about the same thickness as my quartz piece, and with the black case it does wear a little smaller. I actually had to hold this one next to mine to check that it actually was 43mm, and it is, but it definitely appears more like a 41-42mm. Overall the watch is nice enough, but that bezel really makes the difference here and elevates it's wrist presence to a whole other level.

If there is one small little detail that I could pick fault with, it's the orange tip on the second hand. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but at the same time it doesn't particularly complement the gold bezel (although it's probably a better choice than yellow to be fair). It would have been nice if they had maybe gold plated the tip of the second hand and also the 'Calibre 5' text, but I guess they used orange because after all this is a 500M diver at the end of the day (even though literally no one is going to dive with this watch).

If I had a couple of grand in my pocket today (well £2665 actually) I honestly think I might have bought this, because it really is quite stunning. Yes there are similarities with my grey dial quartz, but colour wise it is completely different and it also has a rubber strap rather than a bracelet, and it's an automatic not a quartz - so that's probably different enough to make it a potential purchase. 

Whether or not I ultimately add this to my collection, I'm really happy to have seen it up close and had my preconceptions blown away. This is a gorgeous watch and I almost want to go back and look at it again - right now!