ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Autavia Isograph Watches

The new Autavia Collection

TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield, 25th May 2019

A few weeks ago I got an email inviting me to the Oxford Street store to view the new Autavia range. As it happened I was going to London that day for a gig, but I didn't fancy the idea of trying to persuade my wife to treck all the way across the other side of London just to look at five watches I wasn't particularly fussed about. So I passed on that occasion, but luckily, walking in to the Meadowhall store today I was confronted by not only the new Autavia range but also the Nanograph!

The watches were not available to purchase as they don't start shipping for another few weeks, but they certainly seemed to be attracting a lot of attention; at least the Autavias were. I'm not sure the Nanograph was in the best place as it was positioned directly behind you when looking at the Autavias; I didn't even spot it until I'd been in the store for about fifteen minutes!

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The first Autavia I picked up was this brown dial, bronze cased version and straight away I could see why people were saying these look better that the photographs suggest. For some reason the pictures really flatten them out and when you get to hold them in your hands you quickly realise there's more dimension to the dial than first appears. The indices to the edges (outside the Arabic numerals) are far more angular than I thought and rather than being printed white lume as they appear, they are actually applied polished rhodium. These also sit on the rehaut, which again is not obvious from the photographs I've seen, and while I'm still not crazy about those retro numerals, I assume at least they are going to give plenty of lume-glow.

As far as I can recall this is the first bronze watch I've ever tried on and I don't know if I expected it to be heavier than steel, but it wasn't noticeably so. As I presume these watches have been touring the country working hard to drum up business the bronze is already looking quite tarnished, which is good really as it gives a good indication of how your watch will actually look after a few weeks. On the other hand I'd like to see a brand new one and see what it looks like when the wrapper has just come off.

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The second model I picked up was this green version of the same bronze cased Autavia, and I have to say that the render above is a bit misleading. The green is a lot more subtle than this suggests, particularly on the strap which I didn't even realise was green until I got it in my hands. This is all to the good I feel, as sometimes a little bit of subtlety works better in the long run, and the dark green works extremely well with the bronze case. I think this one is going to sell particularly well once people get to see it.

One of the things I was worried about (perhaps 'worried' is a tad strong...) was that in the renders here the crown looks too big. I know they are going for this 'Pilot' watch aesthetic, something that doesn't particularly appeal to me personally it must be said, but in reality the crowns look much more in keeping with the overall dimensions than you might imagine. Yes the crown is oversized, but it doesn't look too big for the watch, they've got it spot on I think; big enough to match the brief but not so big that it's off-putting.

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The last Autavia I tried on was this blue dial, steel bracelet version and while I'm a bracelet guy and definitely not a brown (or green) leather strap guy, for me this doesn't work anything like as well. The bracelet and clasp remind me of the ones fitted to the Grand Carrera, which is no bad thing in itself, but it doesn't seem to fit with the style of the dial somehow. 

These watches are all 42mm, and while the first two sat nicely on my wrist, this last one felt much bulkier and less wearable. In contrast, the steel looks a little unexciting after the novelty of the bronze cased versions, which is slightly surprising as on paper I thought this would be my Autavia of choice. 

All of the new Autavia's have ceramic bezels as you'd expect for this kind of money really and while I'm still not 'in love' with the Autavia, I definitely feel a lot more warmly to this version (and in particular the bronze cased versions) than I ever have towards the Heuer 02 Autavias. 

I can't help wondering what will happen to these five Autavias that are touring the country drumming up business. Clearly they will be handled a lot and won't be fit for regular sale, is it possible that they might end up in the outlets at some point? And how many more 'display' Autavias might there be knocking around?