ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Golf Watch

WAE1116.FT6004

TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 22nd July 2019

Not the first time I've had a Golf on the wrist, but the first time in a good while I think. It's an odd little thing, very quirky... it's designed for a particular purpose and as I don't play golf myself it's not especially useful to me (but then I don't dive either...), but there's no reason that should preclude non-golfers wearing it if they like it.

You could, I suppose, see this as an affordable alternative to a Monaco, but in reality it has a very different aesthetic. It's slightly 'confusing' to look at, because while at first glance it looks square, a closer look at the dial reveals a different story. It's also quite small, I don't have the measurements unfortunately, but it looked disappointingly dinky on my 'manly' 7.3/4" wrists.

The 'Golf' watch is in essence a basic three-hander with a quartz movement, designed to cope with the shock of golfing. There's a date at the 3 position; the dial has a kind of 'golf ball' relief in the central section and the watch has a left handed crown (to prevent it fouling your wrist while swinging your golf club, obviously). The watch has a ribbed and satisfyingly 'branded', seemingly endless rubber strap which actually fastens in the watch case itself. Those buttons on the upper edges release the three part case, which opens to release the end of the strap (which has to be cut to approximate length) and clamps down on it when closed. It's a clever idea and not having a clasp is a brilliant idea, but those buttons do look a bit odd. It would be interesting to see if someone could come up with a better way to do this as the concept of a claspless strap is quite brilliant (as I'm sure anyone with a scratched up clasp would agree) .

I'm not sure if this is still available, but when I tried this on at Bicester Village in July this piece was offered at £980 (RRP £1400), I don't recall seeing it the last time I visited, but I might have just missed it. While I'm not totally sold on the case shape, I love the quirkiness of it, but it's just that bit too small for me, worth a look though if you happen to visit the outlets any time soon.