WAY201S.BA0927
My mild obsession with last year's green dial / steel bezel Aquaracer has been well documented in these pages, suffice it to say that I never managed to get hold of one nor even got to see one before they had all disappeared in a puff of 'this year's novelty' smoke. I did however, get to see, hold and purchase the ladies 'diamond hour markers' version for my wife's 50th birthday and if that's anything to go by then I'm just as disappointed now as I was then.
Except... I didn't pick up on it at the time, but someone in a TAG Heuer boutique somewhere said something to me last year which may well have been a subtle hint that perhaps all was not lost... and so now we have this, the new for 2020 green dial / green bezel Aquaracer Calibre 5.
I don't know exactly when this was added to the TAG Heuer website, I just happened to find it on there today (along with a couple of new Lady Links that I wasn't expecting, more on those to follow) but I'm guessing it's a pretty recent addition as no one else seems to be talking about it. Similarly, there's not a whole lot of photographs of it out there just yet either, but this one seems to show it pretty well and it goes some way to addressing my first big question, which is of course 'does the green of the bezel match the dial'?
Regular readers will remember that this was a massive issue I had with the 2019 Calibre 16 Formula 1 I saw in London last year, and has been my major worry since I first found out about this model a few weeks ago (ahem, much as I would have loved to have gone rogue and posted about it then, I'm trying to run a respectable blog here - sorry!). Well, if this photo is anything to go by, it looks okay - although I've seen photo's of that Formula 1 that looked okay too, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to reserve final judgement until I finally get to see one close up (whenever that might be of course, is anyone's guess)... assuming they don't all get sold super quickly again of course.
My other concern is that, judging by this photograph at least, it doesn't really look like it's got quite the same 'jewel' quality as the 2019 model; it looks a little more 'sober', a little more 'mature', a little less 'in your face'. But maybe that's a good thing? My wife's green dial Aquaracer is gorgeous, but it's very green indeed - would that work with a matched bezel or would it be too much? I tend to think it might be a little over the top, so maybe a slightly more muted, darker green would be a good move.
That aside, this one looks great, the hour markers, hands and the white TAG Heuer logo really pop against the green background and the silver numbers on the bezel look fantastic as well. If I'm 100% honest though, I do kinda wish they made this as a quartz, and without the cyclops, that would have made this an almost essential purchase for me, as it is... and given the uncertain post-Covid financial future, I'm not writing it off at all, but I definitely need to see it before I commit myself.
I am slightly confused though, because I assumed from these photographs and the price (£300+ up on the 2019 model) that this had a ceramic bezel. Apparently not... at least according to the TAG Heuer website, which assures me it is aluminium. If that is the case, then I can't quite see (especially given the current climate) where that increase in list price is coming from. Does an aluminium bezel insert really justify a price hike of that size? I really wouldn't have thought so...
The 43mm WAY201S.BA0927 is available from the TAG Heuer website now:
No comments:
Post a Comment