OWNED: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

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In a recent post I mentioned that I thought my 4000 Series was 'nothing special'. It's truthfully not the first watch I would grab in the event of a fire, and if I put all my watches in line from best to least best, it would probably be in the bottom two. But having said that, I think it's more of a reflection on the state of my collection now rather than my feelings about the 4000 itself. Right now I have no intention of selling any of my watches, the only one I didn't get on with recently was my Grand Carrera GMT and that one's gone, so while the 4000 is definitely down the bottom end, I still like it a lot.

Admittedly my particular 4000 does have issues. The bezel has been fixed in place, I presume the previous owner got sick of the bezel spinning round (as they often tend to do) and on the 4000 this is all the more annoying because of the split logo. So while it's not ideal, I am not particularly bothered by it as I'd rather it was fixed than spinning around. Clearly sticking it down with mastic wasn't the answer, but that's how it is and I see no real need to spend a load of money sorting it out. Thankfully they made a decent job of it and it's fixed in exactly the right place, so I'm sanguine about it.

The other thing is that the lume has patinated quite a lot and in some lights it's quite hard to see the time. In other light, the lume still looks green and it looks great against the dark grey dial. In some ways it's probably a better bet to buy a white dial 4000 these days, since if the lume does darken at least you'll still get the contrast, but having said that I do think the dark grey dial looks quite classy in comparison. The TAG Heuer logo on the dial is also quite hard to read, but then again when you already have a big green and red logo on the case/bezel, its probably for the best!

I got a catalogue recently which showed 4000 Series models with lume on the bezel, this was something I was never aware of before and I really don't know if mine ever had a lumed bezel or not. It's possible, there are certainly places on the bezel where the lume could have been placed, but I think the same bezels were used regardless.

The bracelet on mine is nice, I've seen some of these stretched really badly, but mine is very tight. It has a rather unique design in that the centre link is concave and the (solid) end links are quite unusual as well in that they are quite large and feature a 'male' connection to the rest of the bracelet. This of course is because of the design on the top link which is shaped to fit around the bulge in the case where the logo sits. Speaking of which, as you've probably noticed the green paint has come off the 'TAG' part of the logo, this is not at all unusual, indeed if you can find one that's intact you're doing well. I've thought about repainting it myself, but I fear it would end up looking a mess so I've left it alone. I have seen one or two that have been repainted and they don't look quite right. I think it would be difficult to get the right shade of green that wasn't too matt or too shiny.

The clasp is nothing special, it has a pressed steel fastening, but it does have 4 adjustment holes which is something the higher end clasps lack. I get that it's a bit of a 'workmanlike' solution, but the fact is it works well and when you don't have any micro adjustment it can be a pain in the backside.

The watch is quite thin, I'm reading it as about 10mm, and mine is 37mm in diameter. If you're buying from eBay or the like you need to be careful as there are lots of smaller 4000s about which can look like full size models in photographs. Prices are up and down, I got mine for £375 I think it was... no, it was listed at that, I actually got it for £325, which is even better considering I've seen these well over £400, which is a bit much honestly.

On the grey dial version, the date does stand out quite a lot and maybe some people would prefer it if the date wheel was the same colour as the dial. On some watches I would agree, but here I think it looks better, just because there's so little contrast on display here that I think the date would be all but invisible if it were white on grey.

In conclusion, this isn't the most special of special watches. But I enjoy wearing it day to day and it seems to work just fine. It does have a few marks and light scratches but overall it's in very good condition and the bracelet in particular seems incredibly good. I've also just noticed that the watch has drilled lugs for easy strap changes, I can't think of many TAGs that have that aside from the Kirium.

If you can find one for a decent price then I say go for it, particularly the quartz models, but I wouldn't get drawn into over paying. It's a nice watch, but it probably won't set your pulse racing. I think the way to look at it is as an affordable piece that you can wear as a beater or a day to day watch, it's nice without being flash which might be a positive if you work in a conservative industry. I won't be selling mine, but I might consider picking up another one in the future, but only if the price is right!