ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 5 Hawaii Limited Edition

WAY2119.BA0928

TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 21st November 2019

It being only a fortnight since my last visit to Bicester Village, not a lot had changed... but, notably, both the black dial Monaco and the smaller blue dial Monaco had both gone (and, I noticed, the seemingly endless availability of the Monaco 24s seems to have finally come to an end). Not much in the way of new arrivals, in fact this was, I think, the only new piece.

Leaving aside why you'd want a 'Hawaiian' dial Aquaracer (unless of course you happen to be Hawaiian yourself, or you've been on holiday there) it has to be said that this is a rather lovely watch. I spied it in the cabinet, but it wasn't until I got it onto my wrist that it really came alive. The light blue accents on the dial really lift the background blue as well and it's a lovely watch to look at. The vibrant colours of the dial work extremely well with the subdued, brushed case of the Aquaracer as well. At 40.5mm it's a watch that will work for most people, I'm more used to the 43mm Aquaracers with the chunkier cases, but this felt very nice on the wrist.

I can't find a photograph of the back of the watch, which is a shame. On the rear you will find a solid caseback, engraved with a couple of palm trees and some text in (let's call it) Hawaiian font, I can't recall the exact phrase but something along the lines of 'Hawaiian Edition'. Around the edge the watch is marked with it's piece number as this watch is limited to just 300 pieces.

Inside the watch you'll find the standard Calibre 5 movement that you find in many of the Aquaracers these days, being distracted by the dial I assumed the watch would be quartz and only realised my mistake when I noticed the second hand wasn't moving. List price on this one is £2050, but currently Bicester are offering this at a very attractive price of £1435. If I hadn't just spent all my money on other watches I might well have been tempted to add this to my collection, even though I'm not Hawaiian and I've never been...*

*To Hawaii I mean, not that I've never been Hawaiian!