BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Classic Quartz Watch

 

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Searching eBay for 80/90s TAG Heuers you will inevitably find listings for cool watches at great prices in Japan. Up until now I've always resisted since buying in my own country is stressful enough, never mind adding in customs, import taxes etc... but a couple of weeks ago (encouraged by a positive anglo-American buying experience for my wife's F1 last year) I finally took the plunge and added this stunning grey/yellow resin Formula 1 to my ever growing collection. 

This particular model has always intrigued me as I used to see an elderly gentleman at the swimming baths wearing one everyday (swimming in it!) and one day he turned up wearing some dreadful Garmin thing and I had to ask what had happened to his TAG Heuer. He said he still had it, it hadn't finally leaked and been destroyed, but he'd had it since new and he fancied a change. He was actually thinking about selling it and if I knew how to contact him I probably would have been interested, but what with the whole Covid thing, I haven't been swimming for six months...

So, as you know I recently picked up a couple of resin F1s at very affordable prices (about £170 a piece and this one worked out about the same including the £24 postage from Japan. Supposedly import duty is 2.5% from Japan to the UK and so I was expecting to pay £5 or so, but then when I looked at other sellers on eBay who want you to pay up front they are charging £80. I imagine there would be some processing fees and maybe VAT to pay, but my watch turned up and the postman put it through the door with no fees to pay, so... I still don't actually know what the real score is.

As far as I remember it was another one where I waited until the last second to bid and nobody else bid against me, I'm getting a bit confused now as I've bid on three watches in the last few weeks, but I'm reasonably sure that that is what actually happened. In fact it must be because I'm sure I got the watch for the starting bid of about £145.

The watch took two weeks to arrive, which seemed like an age... most domestic watches turn up in 1-3 days, but I guess it's fair enough. It was wrapped in cling film and then sent in some sort of old cloth camera case or something, wrapped in a doubled over envelope. Not the best packaging really, but it doesn't appear to have suffered any on the journey.

Straight out of the package I was blown away by the dial, I really love the silver ring around the edge and the hands look fantastic against the yellow background too. Lume is still there, but weak all over - which is to be expected for a tritium lume watch of this vintage. The strap looks genuine, but it's definitely a little thicker than all the other ones I have. I wonder if this is an original strap and the aftermarket ones were made thinner at some point?

There are still a few resin F1s I'd like to get my hands on, the red/green one and possibly the blue/black one or the blue/blue one... but these all seem on the harder side to find in good condition at reasonable prices. I do wonder now if I will keep my black F1, as it's a little bit dull when compared to the other three, it also looks smaller on the wrist than the others as well. Maybe I could use it to fund the next one... 

If nothing else this has taught me not to dismiss watches from Japan out of hand, which is great because for some reason Japan seems to have some fantastic watches at very fair prices. The only thing you do have to be careful of though is bracelet lengths, I've seen countless really nice and unusual TAG Heuer watches for sale with 6.1/2" bracelets and finding links for really old watches can be an absolute nightmare (as I know from my experiences with my steel 3000!).

All in all then this one gets a big thumbs up from me and it might even be my new favourite resin F1!