SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer S/EL Quartz Watch

WG1119

As you know if you read my blog regularly, I now have three S/ELs (two chronographs and a red three hander) and the green dial variant is one that I am somewhat keen to add to my collection. I came across this one on eBay late on Christmas Day evening, and for a moment my finger hovered over the 'Make an Offer' button, but it was only after I looked at the photographs more closely for a few moments that I changed my mind.

You might think it's because it is on a leather strap, but no actually that was rather appealing. All three of my S/ELs are on bracelets and being on a strap instead means I don't have to worry about a) whether the bracelet will be big enough, b) do I need spare links, c) will the links have welded themselves together over the last thirty years like the one's on my wife's S/EL did... no, in fact the leather strap was a plus for me. Even if it is brown...

More seasoned readers may even remember that I bought a leather strapped S/EL a while back, but it was a bit of a disaster. I bought it at the last minute and when it turned up it was about 32mm or something and I quickly sold it on, and actually turned a small profit... probably just about enough to pay the eBay fees!

The watch is offered at a 'Buy It Now' price of £340, which seems extremely fair on the face of it. The condition looks pretty good overall, save for a scratch or two on the polished bezel, but the thing that bothered me and stopped me bidding was the small circle on the dial, which appears to be damage caused by the hands or something dragging on the dial from the hands.

No idea what could have caused that and I'm sure you might not have noticed it until now, but it's one of those things you can't 'unsee' and 'I'm sure it would annoy the hell out of me every time I wore it. At least I noticed before I made an offer, but it's such a shame as otherwise this one looks great; green S/ELs aren't the easiest things in the world to find, and S/ELs on these kinds of straps in general are pretty scarce (the ones with the first link before the strap starts).

Oh well, I guess I'll keep looking and hopefully one day another one will turn up... until then I'll just have to make do with the red one!