WAW1313.FC6247
TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 21st February 2020
Technically this might be considered a 'ladies' watch, but throw your preconceptions out of the window for just a cotton-pickin minute; after all, those pesky wimen are wearing 'our' watches these days and no doubt doing their bit to exacerbate the supply and demand issues with your favourite Rolex models! So I say two can play at that game, and while I initially asked to have a look at this with a view to reviewing it as a ladies model, well... that's not quite how things transpired.
The WAW1313 is positioned, as you'd expect, with all the other 'ladies' watches in the cabinets on the left hand side of the TAG Heuer store, strange then that I'm told that everyone who's tried it on so far has been a man. Somehow that didn't surprise me, I'm only surprised that as yet it hasn't sold... because this is a gorgeous watch indeed!
You may remember that I was rather excited when the quartz Monaco was announced a couple of years ago, but then when I tried it on I was disappointed because it was too small and too 'feminine' looking... odd then that I liked this one as much as I did. I suppose that's because I'm approaching it from a whole different perspective and perhaps because I've got used to wearing smaller watches in the meantime. Even so, I was expecting this to look a little bit lost on my wrist and it really didn't... perhaps the white dial and strap makes the watch wear a little bigger than it really is?
The dial on this one is really nice, it's split into three with the left and right sides faced in mother of pearl, while the middle section is a matt white with vertical fluting, it looks okay in the photographs but it looks incredible on the wrist. The hour markers are diamond and there's a row of diamonds along the top and bottom edges, maybe this is the deal breaker for you? But men wear diamonds too, there's a goodly selection of diamond bezel Carreras to choose from after all...
But yeah, I get it - it takes a confident man to wear a diamond encrusted watch, and an even more confident man to wear something that's at least 'perceived' to be a ladies watch. Personally I would wear this 100%, and I'm definitely not a reed thin, androgynous teenager with skinny jeans, £1000 trainers and an edgy haircut - far from it!
Oddly, I still don't think I would entertain the black dial 'unisex/mens' version of this watch, partly because as a 'man's' Monaco I still think it looks effeminate and small, but this... this is a different story. In fact I would seriously consider adding this to my collection but for one small detail - the price.
Y'see, once you start putting diamonds on watches the price starts climbing faster than you can say 'automatic movement' (which this doesn't have incidentally, like most women's watches this one is a quartz) which means this watch has a heart stopping list price of £4050! Thankfully Bicester Village's price is a lot more palatable at £2835, but even so that puts it into pre-owned Calibre 12 territory... which makes it a very tough call for me, as much as I liked it.
My other concern really is the white strap, I just know I'm going to get it dirty... but damn I really like this watch!
Contact TAG Heuer Bicester Village on 01869 2490008 for details and availability
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