BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer S/EL Quartz Chronograph Two Tone Watch

CG1120-0

So while I was waiting for my CG1110-0 to arrive, I kept returning to another S/EL I had been looking at previously... and wondering if I'd made a mistake. Matter of fact, even as I was waiting for the CG1110 to arrive I was already thinking about buying this one as well (and maybe sitting on it for a few months before I told my wife!). :)

And then when I got the email about the problems with the glass on the CG1110 and I decided to cancel the order, my thoughts immediately returned to this one. I'm sure I could have waited for another CG1110 to come along, and maybe, eventually I'll pick up one of those as well, but something was drawing me back to this two-tone version.

After checking, double checking and indeed triple checking the size of this one... I decided to make a move. But because I'd been watching this one for a while I already knew it had gone through at least one eBay sale cycle without selling at it's asking price of £599, so I decided to put in a low offer and see how it went (whilst being fully prepared to come up if necessary). So my initial offer was £485, and to my great surprise it was accepted!

As ever, and especially in light of my recent experience, the nerves kicked in then... but within a couple of days I had the watch in my hands and while it is smallish (but 38mm as expected) it looks absolutely fine on my wrist - and I love it. I get that two-tone isn't for everybody and I'm sure that's a huge factor in why the seller was having a hard time shifting this one, if he'd had a CG1110 in this condition then I don't think he'd have had a problem - but that doesn't bother me overly because I have no intention of selling this.

I must say, in the pictures the gold comes across as a lot more in your face than it really is. This was much the same when I bought my 2000 Exclusive two-tone, it's a lot more muted than you think it's going to be. Maybe it's more noticeable to other people, but to me once you've been wearing it for a few moments you don't really notice the gold so much and it's not until you really study it that you realise quite how much gold there is on this one.

This is my first (technically second if you count the Kirium I sent back) white dial and it looks great with the two-tone and is the perfect backdrop for the green and red TAG Heuer logo. Finally, the green and red TAG logo! Can you believe I've got thirteen TAGs and only one of them has the classic logo? Admittedly, it's probably because I'm drawn to oddities like the Kirium F1 and the Chronotimer which have white or silver logos... and I did used to have a couple of 2000s which had the classic logo (actually I wish I'd kept my 2000 on a rubber strap, might have to re-buy that one!).

It seems it's taken me forever to finally get my hands on an S/EL, and it only took three goes to get it right! Speaking of which, I've just sold the 32mm SEL I bought on the leather strap for slightly more than I paid for it (I'll lose about £10 overall) so I'm well happy with that and glad to have got that off my hands before the battery goes and dies on me. Ideally I would like one of the larger 42mm SELs, but to get one of those you're talking £800 upwards and I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money on a watch of this age, and besides I'm super happy with this one... my priority now is probably to look for a 4000 Series of some kind, unless of course I can find a decent sized 3000 that isn't in Japan!