Thursday 31 October 2019
BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Kirium Quartz Ladies Watch
WL1316
I started watching this one on eBay a few weeks ago, when it was bidding at less than £100. My wife has been toying with the idea of a Kirium for quite a while but the cheapest she's found them has been about £280 for one in good enough condition. Indeed, while ladies watches are generally cheaper than men's, two other WL1316 on eBay at the moment are pushing the £400 mark, which is too much really.
I eventually secured this one for £201, and quickly received an email from the seller telling me the watch would be on it's way asap. Sure enough the following Monday I received the watch; admittedly not in the best packaging, it was inside a small, fragile cardboard box inside a jiffy bag but it survived all the same. First impressions are pretty good; the bracelet has some stretch to it for sure, but as my wife's wrists are very small that might be a good thing as my Kirium bracelets are very rigid and I feel this might work better for her comfort wise. The polished links are a bit scratched up, but I will give it a polish before I give it to her and get the worst of that sorted (as I did with my own CL1112) and at least the whole bracelet is polished so I don't have to worry about mixed finishes.
The clasp seems pretty sound, which is a relief as the Kirium clasps do wear as they are designed to be 'pressure fit', and the fold-over safety clasp is solid and will provide a good back-up even if the main clasp does eventually wear (as my blue quartz chrono has) and start to loosen somewhat. The watch looks to keep good time and I'm told it's had the battery replaced in the last six months so that should be good for the foreseeable future as well. I'm looking forward to cleaning this one up and getting ready to spring a surprise on my wife sometime in the near future!
These photos aren't great unfortunately, but I think it's clear that there's some significant improvement in the finish of the bracelet from when I received the watch and since I took these pictures I've done some more work on it and given it a polish with Autosol and it's now looking a lot, lot better.
The dial is really nice, I'm sure she's going to love that metallic blue finish, and the watch works perfectly (so perhaps some advantage to keeping it aside for a little while) although I'm definitely going to have to get that bracelet shortened for her as she has the smallest wrists imaginable (I reckon she's going to need six links out of her new Aquaracer when she finally gets it). The only mild annoyance is that the bezel is very stiff to turn, but since I doubt my wife has ever turned the bezel on any of her watches, I don't think it will be too much of a problem!
Wednesday 30 October 2019
Tuesday 29 October 2019
INTERVIEW: Yago (Calibre 11 Forum Member)
The Calibre 11 Limited Edition Autavia Heuer 02
Our guest this time around is Yago, another regular on the Calibre 11 Forum. Let's find out a little bit about him before we start with the questions. So Yago, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi, I’m a 39 yo Belgian. Longtime engaged, next year to be married, father of an 8 year old boy and a 6 year old girl. I started a chocolate business in 2008; we’re currently selling to about 25 countries.
Okay, so you had me at 'chocolate'... and how did you get into watches?
I’ve been into design and architecture since my university years and have been collecting 40’s to ‘80s furniture and accessories ever since. I came across vintage watches during those years but didn’t get bitten by the bug. I do have fond memories of my first watch, given to me by my godmother when I was 7. It wasn’t valuable but I don’t think I’d ever been more proud about something I owned. Being a bit of petrol head and race fan I’ve been aware of Tag Heuer and the F1 & McQueen link for as long as I can remember. I guess it all built up to a point in my mid thirties when I fell in love with a black dial manual wound Carrera on a design blog. Still I couldn’t get myself to pay 5k for a watch although I didn’t have that problem when it came to vintage chairs. That changed.
Yes, funny how your perspective changes once the bug has bitten... so then what was your first, or first good watch?
Coming from a working class family there were no Pateks or Rolexes going around. I couldn’t tell an automatic from a quartz until well after my studies. I was in my thirties when I bought my first ‘good’ watch; an automatic GWC Audi TT watch which has a Valjoux 7750. It was launched alongside the first generation Audi TT. One would be right to be suspicious about car watches but the first TT is a special car and I like to think so is this watch. I sold the car but I still have the watch.
I must admit I never knew there was a watch to go with the Audi TT, you see this process is educational for me as well as entertaining for us all. :) Do you have a favourite piece in your current collection?
A tough one to answer. As a vintage guy I tend to favour my old watches more. I wear my Lemania 5100 powered Orfina 7176 Porsche Design most but the watch I splashed out most for when I started to seriously get into watches was my Heuer Montreal. I have a feeling that one will stay with me.
One of the topics that often divides watch aficionados is that of the merits or otherwise of quartz, how do you feel about quartz watches?
My first Tag Heuer was a 1000 quartz, which today I enjoy most on my wife’s wrist. For me it’s mostly relevant because of the historical context. They’re an engineering feat, much less fussy than automatics and a 50 euro Quartz will usually be more accurate than most 5K+ automatics. But watch collecting isn’t about being pragmatic. I recently bought a meca quartz chronograph and was surprised at how nice the chronograph function handles.
Most of us have some sort of eye on the next prize, do you have an inkling of what your next purchase might be?
I recently ordered the upcoming bronze Yema Superman so I’m excited about that. It wasn’t on my list so there you go. Watches at the top of that list are a T dial polar explorer II, a vintage manual grey Monaco, a vintage Yema Yachtingraf and a T dial IWC3706.
Do you have a ‘money no object’ grail in mind?
Bunches but at the top of that list would probably be the Chronomatic Siffert Autavia.
You mentioned that your wife now wears your old TAG Heuer 1000 Series, how does your she feel about your collection?
She likes my various passions and has started a little watch collection of her own. I must say it’s a lot more sensible and complete than mine.
I can see you have quite a decent sized collection of pieces, how many watches do you think is too many?
The amount that would require you to save on stuff you actually need.
And have you ever ‘sneaked’ a watch into the house?
I do that all the time.
Well, I'm shocked! :)
From my own experience, I can say that once you get to a certain 'size' of collection, things start to get a little... well, 'cavalier' is probably a bit strong, but maybe not every purchase is pondered over and thought out as much as it once was - and then there's the simple truth that until you actually own a piece it's hard to know for sure if it's right for you or not, so have you ever bought or sold a watch and regretted it?
I have bought and sold but never regretted. Even the watches I didn’t hold on to for long were part of the learning curve.
So what excites you more, re-issues or new pieces?
A re-issue is a broad term. I’m not a fan of exact replicas and I usually favour pieces that have been inspired by a classic or a classic period. Truly new pieces are very rare.
And what about faux aged lume: Ingenious or travesty?
Let’s call it beige.
Why is it do you think that TAG Heuer attracts more than its fair share of negativity from the watch community at large?
I think a lot of it has to do with a lack of understanding by the general public. It seems most people don’t know the Heuer heritage and somewhat confusing that a lot of watch people that do actually don’t understand the 'TAG' in Tag Heuer heritage. You often hear such fantasy claims as ‘Tag killed Heuer’. It couldn’t be further from the truth. TAG saved Heuer and ‘Tag Heuer’ made a lot of sense given the shared racing heritage. However once TAG sold Tag Heuer things started to get a little murky.
These days Tag Heuer is neatly positioned against other watch brands in the same conglomerate, with collections and price points all over the place, trying to please everyone. The brand needs an exciting vision.
Another hugely controversial topic is the collaboration with Mr Bamford, where do you stand on that one?
I see a good fit between the companies and their fans. Personalising watches has been around for a long time and this is a great approach by Tag Heuer to somewhat keep control over this. That said I haven’t been persuaded so far buy any of the Bamford editions but that might very well change. The Tag Heuer Bamford Monaco however I really like and I would love to add it to the collection at one point, when hopefully prices will be more reasonable.
Are you swayed by ‘limited editions’ and the associated packaging?
I have a few. The proliferation of LEs has been remarkable over the past years and it only seems to be accelerating. I suppose watch brands are a bit lost these days and when introducing LEs seems to pay off for a few brands, suddenly everyone starts doing it. There is a risk of diluting your brand and I don’t know how future collectors will be able to tell off the shelf, LEs and copies apart. It already takes serious dedication and studying to tell all Speedmasters apart.
That said I am swayed by LEs if they bring something interesting to the table and there are some good examples of that.
Obviously you have great affinity for Heuer and TAG Heuer otherwise you wouldn't be on Calibre 11, but is there a TAG Heuer or Heuer you really don’t like?
Let’s say I don’t understand how the great Monnin and 1000 series led up to the AR.
Oh... well that's a first, I can't honestly think I've ever heard anyone say they're not keen on the Aquaracer before. Still, there are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers after all, it's all just a matter of taste. Speaking of which, is there something you’d like to see more of in watch design, for example a dial colour that’s under used?
I’d love to see more inspired, enthusiastic and risky designs.
How do you feel about gold and two-tone watches, would you / do you wear them and do you feel comfortable wearing them?
I like gold watches a lot and a solid gold day-date or Cartier tank is about as classy as it gets. I steal my wife’s UG from time to time. Gold sport & dive watches I don’t understand. The whole two-tone theme of this year is beyond me but perhaps I’m not there yet.
I'm quite torn on this idea of sharing watches, my wife's wrist is hilariously small so it's completely out of the question, but if we could share watches I'd be very reluctant to let her wear my watches, even if it meant I could wear hers.... I mean marriage is for life and all, but there are limits!
We've discussed re-issues briefly, but is there a watch you'd like to see TAG Heuer reissue?
The dark lord or the Bund but not as exact replicas please.
The 50th Anniversary celebrations are ongoing, and as we know we now have to wait until October (IIRC) for the reveal of the CAW211Y in Japan... but if you were in charge of TAG Heuer, would you have done anything differently?
In retrospect everything is easy but the months apart launches are a real drag. Besides true Monaco enthusiasts I don’t think anybody’s bothered at this point. I would have highlighted the brand DNA and would have tried to come up with something truly inspired and inspiring. I’m sure Jack Heuer would have had an idea of two.
Given the positive reaction to the red limited edition Monaco and given LVMH 'sister-brand' Hublot's affiliation with the marque, would you like to see some sort of ‘Ferrari’ Monaco?
The Monza was the true Ferrari watch but I’m not a big fan of the re-issue. I don’t see immediate links between this Monaco and Ferrari. Given the current Red Bull alliance I wouldn’t have much hope for anything Ferrari in the near future. I’d like to see Tag Heuer explore the strong links with Porsche for both Heuer and Tag Heuer, although I understand that won’t be easy considering Porsche Design.
And while we're on the subject, when it comes to the Monaco are you a square pushers or round pushers kind of guy?
Round for the original, square for the re-editions.
I can see from the photographs you sent me that you're collection goes beyond the Heuer/TAG Heuer brand, which other brands do you own and/or appreciate?
My moderate collection is mostly sports oriented. I appreciate various brands, big and small. Besides Heuer and Tag Heuer my collection includes or has included Tudor, Baltic, Yema, UG, Seiko, Omega and Orfina. Then I also like vintage no name pilot’s and chronograph watches.
I'm guessing you aren't at the point where you're having to save on things you 'need' yet, so can I assume that your collection will continue to grow?
Without a doubt. I would like to focus less on the sports watches and chronographs but interesting new pieces always seem to pop up.
Yes, I know the feeling... I'm always 'going to' save for something special and then five minutes later you spot something much more attainable on eBay... it's a blessing and curse.
Now another thing that really divides opinion in the watch world is the Hodinkee limited edition phenomenon, and leading off of that, would you like to see TAG instigate some sort of ‘VIP’ club for people who buy regularly with special editions offered first/or possibly exclusively to members?
I pretty much like all of Hodinkee’s LEs and although the prices are quite high, you do get something interesting. The Hodinkee Tag heuer LE’s have done well for the Tag Heuer brand.
As VIP exclusives are concerned, there’s already a lot of speculation going on with LEs popping up the day after launch, demanding high premiums. Such a strategy might further enable that. If you follow your favourite brands, Hodinkee and some other blogs, you should be in time to snatch up most LEs you fancy.
And so we come to perhaps one of the most controversial topics of all, brand ambassadors... so who (if anybody) do you think should be TAG Heuer’s next brand ambassadors?
I think they have the right guy with Max Verstappen. It’s a pity he’s the face of the rather dreadful Formula 1 range of watches.
I have to agree, the last Max Verstappen watch is a dog's dinner, I really hope they don't let him design the next one!
Well, Yago, thank you so much for taking the time to do this, I just have one more question, and that is if I gave you a £10,000 watch voucher now, what would you buy?
Do vintage watches count? In that case an unspoiled grey Monaco on bracelet.
Well, Yago... as always, thank you for taking the time to do this interview and hopefully we can catch up again sometime in the future.
Monday 28 October 2019
BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Quartz Watch
WAB1112.BA0801
A few weeks ago I bought a few 'Dealer Catalogues' from eBay and a watch that caught my eye in there was this WAB1112. Prior to this I hadn't really had much exposure to this style of Aquaracer, the only ones I'd seen before were the McLaren/Alonso/Hamilton and the China Team Regatta limited edition Calibre S models that I had seen and tried on at Bicester Village. This one caught my attention firstly because of the yellow second hand and secondly because in the catalogue I bought this was actually described as a 2000: Aquaracer, rather than an Aquaracer. So it seems that in the same way the Aquagraph started life as the 2000: Aquagraph, this watch started as a model in one series before becoming the first in a series of it's own right.
Looking around it seemed the cheapest you could pick this watch up for was £7-800, which seemed a little bit excessive to me, but eventually I managed to find an immaculate piece which was bidding under £500. I had to go to £570 to secure it, but I did get full box and papers and warranty card (stamped 'Bicester Village 2009' oddly enough) so I can't grumble about that. It was a bit of a gamble because the seller only put a few not terribly brilliant photos up and none of the back. Once I saw the back I felt a lot more at ease as it is very similar to the back of my Aqugraph and something I don't think a faker would bother with replicating.
The bracelet does feel a bit tinny and cheap, but no different to the CAF1112 I just sold, and it also has the pressed clasp in common with that watch, which is a shame, but it does the job I guess. I like the simplicity of the watch and for me I kind of think of it as the 'classic' diver in my collection. It reminds me a little of the Tudor Black Bay, especially when the light catches the bezel markings. That may make some people furrow their brows but when you look at the watch in the context of my collection, in comparison to my other divers it is very much more 'classic' in style.
The WAB1112 arrived within days of the CAF1112 leaving the house which gave me a very narrow window of opportunity to get a few pictures of them side by side. For some reason both watches look like they have black dials in this picture, but I can assure you they are both blue. So in essence I've traded one blue Aquaracer for another (albeit with the added bonus of about £100 cashback) and I have to say I don't have any regrets. I'm a little undecided about this new addition to the stable, I like it right enough... but it is a little out of my 'comfort zone' if you like, so I think I'll have to see how it goes. I definitely prefer it to the CAF1112 though, that's a watch I genuinely shouldn't have bought in the first place. Unfortunately, watch collecting isn't an exact science and along the way you have to accept there will be some (relatively costly) mistakes and this is one of them.
Sunday 27 October 2019
Saturday 26 October 2019
SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Golf Ladies Quartz Watch
WAE1114.FT6011
TAG Heuer Outlet / Bicester Village, 19th September 2019
Not quite an 'On the Wrist' (although I could have quite easily slipped this on as the rubber strap was more than long enough), but I had an awful lot to try on this September day (you know, back when it was warm every day - seems like a long time ago now, doesn't it?) and so I just gave this a bit of a casual look over. Unfortunately I didn't even think to remove the protective film from the crystal before snapping these shots so apologies for that, but this was literally taken straight out of the delivery box!
While this is clearly aimed at the female market, there's no reason a guy couldn't wear it if he was sufficiently flamboyant, indeed, this watch is exactly the same size as the black Golf I tried on previously (and surely no one is going to say a lady couldn't wear that one!). Admittedly I did find it a tad small, but then the watch is designed to be used when playing golf so this is 100% an intentional, practical design decision.
By way of comparison, at 37mm this is approximately the same size as the smaller quartz Monacos that came out last year which again are sold as both 'male' and 'female' watches depending on the dial and strap colours (except in Belgium where that sort of thing is completely illegal*). I'm sure my wife would like the colour of this one, but I know it's going to be too big for her tiny wrists so that's a non-starter. Shame...
*Okay, I might have made that up.
The watch itself is a fairly simple affair, albeit with a couple of unusual features. Firstly, the crown is on the left hand side of the case (Calibre 11 style) so as not to dig into your wrist while playing a shot, and secondly the strap is a continuous band of pale pink rubber which is fastened inside the case. This is facilitated by the two buttons on either side which push in to release the folding three part case and allow the end of the strap (which needs to be cut to approximate size) to be placed inside. Once the case is closed the strap is retained securely and you can go about your game.
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Golf, but like the quartz Monaco I find it just that bit too small and effeminate for me (even in black). Still if you fancy one of these you can save yourself nigh on £500 as this is currently on offer at the Bicester Village boutique for £1155 (down from £1650).
DON'T FORGET YOU CAN ALWAYS KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST BICESTER VILLAGE DELIVERIES BY CLICKING ON THE BANNER TO YOUR RIGHT...!
Friday 25 October 2019
Thursday 24 October 2019
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Formula 1 'Ultra Green' Chronograph
CAZ2016.FC6473
Green watches.... flavour of the month you know, so much so that TAG Heuer's gorgeous new green Aquaracer has already been and gone. Yep, that's right, if like me you were waiting for it to hit your local UK store in the mistaken belief that you had all the time in the world to pick it up, well I have some bad news for you: it's already too late! But let's not dwell on that since I've already bitched and whined at length in my 'Buying Experience' post for the ladies green Aquaracer which you can read HERE if you haven't already...
So, what then can TAG Heuer offer you right now if you're determined to furnish yourself with a green dialed watch? Well, options are pretty limited, in fact very limited... unless you can find yourself a green Aquaracer somewhere, or one of the older watches I talked about in my 'green TAG Heuer watches' post (HERE). Currently you have the stylish (but not terribly green) Khaki quartz Aquaracer, the Autavia Isograph (although that is currently unavailable pending re-release next year sans its ground breaking hairspring) and now this new Formula 1 Calibre 16 chronograph, which as is fast becoming the norm, was leaked months ago on a certain Czech website but which has only just found it's way onto TAGHeuer.com.
Now I must admit I'm not the biggest fan of the Calibre 16 Formula 1s. Indeed it wasn't so long ago that Mr Biver assured us that the Formula 1 would be 'entry-level' quartz only in future, a move which seemed entirely reasonable and logical at the time, but somehow the range refuses to die. It doesn't really make sense to me because you're paying for a mechanical movement sure, but you're getting the finish you would expect on a less expensive watch. Which isn't to say the finish is 'bad', just not really in step with the price you're paying (this CAZ2016 lists at £2300).
This one though at least has an 'angle', a 'unique selling point' with that green dial and bezel... but it looks pretty dark, doesn't it? It's certainly a completely different approach to that of the bright and shiny Aquaracer... I guess they could sell it as almost 'British Racing Green' if they pleased. And though my first reaction to it was a bit indifferent... you know, the more I look at this picture (because this render is literally all we have) the more I kinda like it. As ever though, this Calibre 16 automatic Formula 1 is a sizeable 44mm, which means it's certainly not for everyone.
On the positive side, the white 'tachymetre' on the sandblasted and polished aluminium bezel looks great and the strap looks perfectly chosen for this watch with the subtle green stitching completing the look nicely. Not sure how I feel about the black rings around the sub-dials or the black hour markers though. The TAG Heuer website claim those black hour markers are lumed, but I wouldn't take that as read, and if they are lumed I suspect they won't be much use.
I think the best we can say at this point is that this one has 'potential' and leave it at that. I have a feeling it could look fantastic close-up, especially if the dial plays with the light the way I hope it will, but equally it could go the other way and disappoint us massively. Hopefully this green dial release will actually make it to the shop windows so that we can go take a look for ourselves...!
Wednesday 23 October 2019
Tuesday 22 October 2019
BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Ladies Quartz Aquaracer
WBD1316.BA0740
As long term readers are no doubt abundantly aware, the plan for my 50th birthday was thus: my wife had offered to buy me a WAY2015 green dial, Calibre 5 Aquaracer, and in return I had committed to buying her a WBD1316 green dial Aquaracer for her 50th next April. It was all so simple... at least until it wasn't.
Flashback a few months and there I was at the TAG Heuer outlet in Bicester Village trying on watches, when I unwittingly slipped what would eventually become my 50th birthday present on to my wrist. No regrets from me, I love my new titanium Carrera Calibre 16 Day/Date, and when you get a deal like that in an outlet you have to jump on it, right? Besides, the green Aquaracer was barely even out in time for my birthday and I had plenty of time to get one, maybe even next year when I picked up my wife's AR.
Oh yeah, nooooo problem.
Until one day last week I got an email from my contact at the Oxford Street boutique; I had already promised to buy both green Aquaracers from Aneta (who I previously knew from her time at Bicester Village) and had every intention of sticking to that promise... but Aneta had news, and it wasn't good news. She told me that she had sold all her WAY2015s and she wasn't able to get any more in, not only that but she only had one WBD1316 left in stock and after that she wasn't getting any more of those either.
Wait, what?/??#!!
Aneta told me the green dial Aquaracer had been intended not as a new regular Aquaracer, but as a 'one season' novelty. Now three weeks later they had sold all their allotted stock... and no more would be forthcoming.
I was a bit taken aback, I thought I had months to sort out buying my wife's watch, but now suddenly it was a case of buy it now because tomorrow it will be gone!
Hmm, now things were starting to make sense, when I had asked in other jewellers about the green dial Aquaracers they really didn't know what I was talking about, and when they made enquiries they started giving me answers like 'I don't think we'll be getting that one in', or 'I don't know if we'll be stocking that one'. At the time I thought they were being singularly useless, after all 'green' is the cool colour this year, what were they thinking not jumping on this ultra-hip Aquaracer? Now I see they probably weren't ever offered the watch, because the stocks were limited from the get-go.
As much as I really wanted to buy the (one remaining) watch from Aneta as I had promised to do, I couldn't get down to London for about four weeks, so unfortunately I had to turn to the TAG Heuer website to secure my wife's birthday happiness! Oh joy... because buying expensive goods from a website is sooooo luxurious isn't it? Who wouldn't want to do that rather than visit the boutique, have a chat and a glass of champagne, try the watch on and have the bracelet sized while you wait...?
But needs must, so I sat down late on Wednesday night, credit card grasped firmly in my left hand and began the process. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, I could just as easily have been ordering a toaster... this isn't a criticism of TAG Heuer by the way, it's e-commerce - patently not a 'luxury' experience after all. The website did give me the option to have the bracelet sized but I opted to have it delivered complete
Annoyingly I did experience some difficulties getting the order to place; I had that horrible thing where you click 'Place Order' and the next page wouldn't load, leaving me to wonder if I'd placed my order or not and if I clicked it again was I going to duplicate it? It went on so long that I had no choice but to click it again and when it still didn't work I had to close the page and start again. After three goes the next page finally loaded and my order showed as accepted. Yay!
I ordered the watch late in the evening, well past the 2pm deadline for next day delivery so I wasn't expecting it to come on Thursday. It didn't, but we did get a phone call telling us the watch would be dispatched via Royal Mail and would arrive on Friday. Great news, although it rendered the online tracking with DPD a bit pointless.
Also, for some reason the website changed the delivery address on my order to my card address, despite me having typed in the address I wanted the watch delivered to. Fortunately my wife was at home on the Friday so it wasn't a big deal, but it could have been quite irritating and there didn't seem to be any process to amend it once the order was accepted (and it doesn't give you a final chance like Amazon does to go back and change the address either, which I personally think it should). I was quite surprised actually that the option to have the watch sent to an address other than the card address was there, but to give the option and then change it was more annoying than it not being there in the first place.
Mixed feelings about the website then; delivery was as quick as it could possibly be, but it wasn't exactly a smooth experience and it further reinforced my feelings that I would much rather have visited the Oxford Street store and purchased the watch in person had time not been so pressing.
The watch itself is very nice, that green is quite stunning and it makes me all the more sorry that all the WAY2015s have gone (in the UK at least, the American website is still showing stock and I'm told there's plenty available on that side of the pond), but I'm sure one will turn up eventually - the question is will it start trading over list if it's that popular?
Happily, because of course my wife had never had the chance to actually see the watch in person before it arrived, she loved it and so I didn't have to avail myself of the returns facility. Unhappily for her, the watch now has to sit in it's box for six months until she's 'old enough' to wear it. :)
Monday 21 October 2019
Sunday 20 October 2019
SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Alter Ego 'River of Diamonds' Quartz Ladies Watch
WP131L.BA0755
The other day I bought myself a copy of the 2001 TAG Heuer catalogue, which came complete with a smaller catalogue and price list. There was nothing in there that particularly jumped out at me except a couple of 'Alter Ego' ladies watches, and one jumped out at me rather more than the other one.
The Alter Ego 'River of Diamonds' is a rare beast indeed, and when you consider that the price in 2001 was a breath-taking £10,000 it's not hard to see why. I bought quite a large house in 2001 for £72,000, and you could buy a new Fiat Seicento for about £8,000... in the same price list a top of the range Formula 1 Kirium on a bracelet was priced at £1500 and a Monaco CW2112 was just £1750; adjusted for inflation the 'Alter Ego River of Diamonds' would cost about £16,000 today... more than a Carrera Tourbillon!
And being a ladies watch, it's quartz!
It's nice enough, but to be honest, compared to the S/EL 'River of Diamonds' the Alter Ego looks more like a 'Stream of Diamonds' than a 'river'...
Similarly the Link 'River of Diamonds' also seems to have a lot more diamonds than this Alter Ego, although I can't help but think in this instance, maybe less really is more?
WJF1413.BA0588
One of those is showing as 'sold' on Milton's Diamonds website for £2999, which suggests these watches aren't holding their value as much as you might have hoped... although that said, I don't know the original price of the WJF1413.
Googling 'Alter Ego River of Diamonds' doesn't produce much in the way of images or video, but I did find this video which looks a bit like bodycam footage from a drugs raid (on an aeroplane?).
BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Catalogue + Insert / Price List
Another week, another catalogue... and with every catalogue I purchase I rue the lost 1988 catalogue all the more. Oh well, let's hope one day it pops up again, and this time I'll have to bid HARDER!
So I have pretty much all the catalogues from this century I believe, but this 2001 edition was one that was missing. Luckily for me it came with an additional insert cataloge and the insert price list (but sadly no price list for the main catalogue).
I was looking at this thinking 'why are Mika and David' scratching their chins like that, and then it dawned on me that they were 'displaying' their TAG Heuer watches (which you can barely notice).
The insert is a nice little addition, containing pages. Not that many watches included in it actually, but it's very luxurious with fold out leaves and high quality photos.
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