It's not every day you find a TAG Heuer Edge for sale on eBay, rarer still that it has the correct dial and bracelet (the vast majority of 'Edges' out there were made from cases that escaped the factory, usually using 2000 dials and whatever bracelet fits). For those not completely au fait with the 'Edge', the watch was a prototype that was subsequently abandoned in favour of the much more wrist friendly 'Kirium' and it's not that difficult to see why. Avant Garde it may be, but it's not exactly beautiful, is it?
And yet, when I saw this on eBay with just over 3 hours to go and no bids, I was more than a little tempted to bid on it. The only things that stopped me were a) concern that the bracelet might be one link too small, b) the fact that I bought two watches not that long ago and I don't need the earache... and (the deciding factor if I'm completely honest) c) noticing the state of the minute hand, which seems to have some black gunk spread up it.
At the end of the day if you step into the world of prototype watches, you really have to throw notions of quality control out of the window, because they don't necessarily apply. I must admit I had mixed feelings when I noticed the minute hand; part of me was kind of relieved because while I'm reasonably sure that £600 is a fair price for such a rare item, I didn't really want to lay out more money on something I'm not 100% sure about... but on the other, as brutal and ugly as this undoubtedly is, I kinda like it. Especially with the blue dial, and let's be honest... opportunities like this don't come along every day so the 'collector' in me definitely wanted to place a bid!
Price wise I guess this is one of those things that's difficult to pin down. On the face of it £600 seems fair, but on the other hand I'm not really surprised that it didn't sell. For one thing a lot of people just won't realise what this is, still more won't like it or might think it was a fake, and then of the few people left who know and who like it, how many are willing to stump up that kind of money for something that while unique and collectible, will probably be difficult to sell if they change their mind.
Interestingly, while this one hasn't as yet been relisted, I notice there's one on at the moment in Australia, which is on a black leather strap, the wrong dial and has a gold crown (not the correct knurled one as seen above) which is selling for $335 with about an hour to go... to me that makes the other one look a steal at £600 if I'm completely honest.
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