ON THE WRIST: Formula 1 Calibre S Chronograph

CAH7010.BT0717

TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 27th July 2018

I've been kind of attracted to this one for a while, not least because it combines the best bits of my old WAH1110 and the Calibre S movement, which I really like. One of the best things about this model is that it side-steps my main problem with the WAH1110, namely it's 41mm diameter. This watch is like that one on steroids, coming in at a much beefier 44mm and all the better for it.

I thought trying this one on might make me miss my old WAH1110, but it hasn't. If anything it reminds me more of my CAU2012, which I'm pretty sure has the same case and indeed this utilises the same 22mm (BT0717) strap which I bought for my Calibre 16 F1. And speaking of that watch, my main niggle with this one is that same unfortunate combination of pushers and crown guards which project out of the side of the watch and make it look a bit odd.

But then it definitely needs those crown guards because the crown on this watch sticks out a lot. In fact it really struck me that it looked like a screw down crown that wasn't screwed down - such is the gap between the case and the crown. I don't know why that is, I know the Calibre S requires the crown to be pushed in to activate the chrono function, but my yellow Aquaracer has no gap between the crown and case visible at all.

I really love the monochrome colour scheme, that really works well although the hands on the Calibre S are typically a bit vague (mine is just the same), they often don't return exactly to the 12, but catch up once you activate the chronograph. I must admit that is the one thing that bugs me about the Calibre S, despite being otherwise brilliant. I do really like the skeletonised hands and the way they've made the 1/100 dial larger than the 1/10 although there's not really a functional reason for doing that, it just looks funky!

I think the list for this was around the £1800 mark as it's on offer at the Bicester outlet for £1205, which is the usual 30% saving. I wondered how much they were available for pre-owned, but they don't seem to be that common and the prices weren't much better to be honest, so NOS with a two year warranty seems like a good deal to me.

So crown and crown guards aside, I really rather like this one, although I think it would have to be quite a bit cheaper to tempt me back into the Formula 1 pool.