SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Formula 1 '5150' Special Edition

 

Van Halen circa 1986

Being an old man (51 next month!) I am one of relatively few people in the UK who got to see the original line up of Van Halen the first time around... I mean, me and the other 80,000 people who attended the 1984 Monsters of Rock concert at Castle Donington - obviously! This was a rare UK performance for the band who had only previously visited the UK as a support act for Black Sabbath on their 1978 tour for the album 'Never Say Die'. This festival performance was of course off the back of Van Halen's diamond selling (certified 10M US Sales) album '1984', from whence came the hit songs 'Jump', 'Panama' and 'I'll Wait'.

However, following this gargantuan success the band split with their larger than life vocalist David Lee Roth and in his place enlisted the services of one Sammy Hagar, late of the band Montrose and his own successful solo career which spawned the hit 'I Can't Drive 55'. In the process Van Halen unofficially became 'Van Hagar' and their music became more poppy and in tune with the mid 80s era. Needless to say, I was not overly impressed as by this time I was now 16 and had moved on to bigger and better things..

Meanwhile Van Hagar continued on (without me), with a number 1 album called '5150' (remarkably '1984' had only made it to the number two spot, kept at bay by Michael Jackson's ludicrously successful 'Thriller' album on which Eddie Van Halen played, coincidentally!) that sold a relatively 'disappointing' 6M units in the USA... they must have been devastated, huh? '5150' is probably best known for the hit single 'Why Can't this be Love' and true to form the band embarked on a World Tour that consisted of 114 dates, 111 of which were in the United States... 

No joke, the other three dates were in Canada.

Anyway, by now you are probably wondering what on Earth this little trip down memory lane has got to do with anything at all? Well, it seems that TAG Heuer produced some '5150' Formula 1s. I don't know if this was given to the crew or the promoters or maybe sold at the merchandising booth? In fact I can't really tell you much about it at all other than that it is clearly a modified 380.513, with a 'V H 5150' dial.

I can tell you that it originally came in a long form cardboard box rather than the round plastic tub, which was perhaps a more practical storage solution for carrying on the road, or maybe they hadn't got around to making the plastic boxes just yet? Either way, this is a pretty unique piece of rock'n'roll history and one of the most surprising TAG Heuer collaborations we've seen yet.

More pics here:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tag-heuer-f1-formula-380-513-ltd-168020459

Unfortunately I have no idea how much this sold for, I'm guessing the high hundreds given that a mint, boxed 380.513 would probably command $500+ on it's own... though I can't help but wonder if a thirty four year old watch that's still in the box and complete with crown stopper, might not contain a very dead and very leaky battery?