SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Sports Quartz Watch

WM1113

This is a watch that doesn't get much attention, and yet I've seen quite a few of these floating around eBay over the years, often in less than stellar condition it must be said. The 2000 'Sports' was available in three colour schemes, this blue dial/blue bezel model, a white dial/black bezel variant and most popular of all the 'Coke' bezel version which features a black dial and a black bezel with the first quarter section coloured red. I've always fancied the 'Coke' but every time I've found one that looked good it was always about an inch of bracelet short, and I've never wanted it 'enough' to go to the trouble of locating extra links, maybe one day I will...

This one though, is available from Fine Time Watches for the very reasonable sum of £349 with a nigh on 8" bracelet. I have bought from Fine Time myself and had mixed experiences, the first time was great and I was very happy with the purchase of my WAH1110, but the second time I sent the watch back because it was a lot more scratched than it looked in the photos and it was advertised as being 41mm when it was actually 2-3mm smaller. To be fair, I didn't have any problems sending it back and I would buy from them again - just make sure you do your own research as I don't think they ever corrected their sizing mistake when they relisted the watch. Tsk, tsk. While we're on the subject of size this one is a little on the small side at 37.5mm, so if you're like me and have a bigger wrist you might want to bear that in mind.

All three designs featured the same slightly unusual Arabic numerals, which look okay on the black/blue dials, but look a bit OTT on the white dial. To be honest, I've never understood the 'sports' label this watch has, the numerals don't really scream 'sports' to me and the aluminium bezel isn't the most hard-wearing of materials, I guess they'd already used the 'Exclusive' branding and they needed something else to distinguish it from the 'classic' 2000 range.

Apart from the mark on the bezel at the 5 position, this looks in very good condition, and the price seems very reasonable, although it's worth bearing in mind that unlike some other 'online shops' like Watchfinder no warranty is offered with this purchase. Still, for £349 you can't really grumble, it's significantly less than I'd expect to find it on eBay in this condition to be honest. If I hadn't just bought my CA1212-1 I might have been tempted to buy this, but I'm kind of glad in a way because while I would like a 2000 Sports in my collection at some point, I'd really rather wait for a 'Coke' bezel to turn up instead.