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The 3000 Series has always been one of my favourite TAG Heuer watches and it's a model that actually entered the range in the last days of the 'Heuer' era. In fact a quick look through the catalogues on the Calibre 11 website seems to suggest that it first appeared in 1984, just one year before the buyout by the Techniques d'Avant Garde group.
It's well known that in the aftermath of the takeover TAG Heuer continued to use parts stamped 'Heuer' on TAG Heuer watches and so it is here: the two tone one has a 'Heuer' clasp and a 'TAG Heuer' crown, while the steel version has a 'Heuer' crown and a 'TAG Heuer' clasp! I guess I could swap the clasps over to at least make one of them 'authentically' TAG Heuer... if I really wanted to.
The range last appeared in the 1989 Japanese catalogue, which means it was only produced for about six years and it can be tricky to track down the one you want. I always wanted a steel 3000, but eventually a two tone model came up for sale in the UK at the tail end of 2018 and I decided to bid on it. I remember it was on sale for something like £500 and I made what I thought was a rather derisory offer of £275, which the seller quickly accepted. A little too quickly for my liking, indeed it made me wonder if there wasn't something wrong with it - but happily I've had it two years now and it seems fine.
If you search for 3000 Series watches on eBay you will find plenty of results but they are almost always in Japan (for some bizarre reason) and more often than not two tone or gold plated. Steel ones seem the hardest to find and you also have to be aware that they were actually made in four different sizes. Full size models end with a number '06', ladies pieces '08' and the two inbetween sizes '15' and '13' (with '13' being the larger of the two). I'm not sure on the sizes of the other references, but I can confirm that the 06 models are about 37mm across the case and 9mm thick.
Two tone isn't everyone's cup of tea granted, but I already had a 2000 Exclusive and an S/EL in two tone so it didn't phase me. The gold is worn away around the edge of the twelve sided bezel a little bit and that's not uncommon at all with these watches - I think the gold was very, umm... sparingly applied in the 1980s. I actually like the two tone look on this particular watch, it seems rather fitting for a watch of this era and I also really like the rather 'industrial' looking case as well.
The TAG Heuer logo on the dial is rather large, probably larger than you'd find on a modern 43mm Aquaracer, but again I quite like that. The 80s were loud and brash and this watch epitomises the times, whether you feel comfortable wearing it in 2021 is another matter, but I'm fine with it.
I really like that this one has a silver/grey dial, there was a version with a gold dial which again you will often find for sale on eBay from Japan, but for me this slightly subtler version is preferable. The silver dial does have a gold ring around it though, which has the rather unfortunate effect of making the watch look like it's not put together straight from some angles. The culprit here is the that TAG Heuer mirrored the twelve sided shape on the inside edge of the bezel, which when placed so close to the gold ring on the dial causes some consternation! I'm used to it now, and when you hold the watch dead straight on it looks bang on, but when I first got it I actually thought the dial was sitting to one side of the case.
It took me just over another year to find a full size steel 3000 at a sensible price in the UK. I did actually find a NOS piece for sale in Italy, but they wanted £800 for it. I did enter into some negotiation and I think I got them down to about £675, but for some reason I was reluctant to pull the trigger. Then my luck changed and at the end Dec 2019 one came up for sale on eBay with a starting price of £335. I put in a bid of £500 for it, but no one else bid and I got it for £335. Result!
The seller was selling it because her father had passed away and they had found it in a drawer. They had replaced the battery and it came in it's original blue plastic box (complete with wrist measuring tool), however it was a couple of links short for my 7.5/8" wrist, so I had to rob a couple of links from the two-tone (which had a full bracelet seemingly and about a full inch of micro adjustment) and pondered removing the gold from them if I couldn't source the genuine article (as someone had done on my grey dial 4000 Series I noticed).
Thankfully Tom at Bicester Village managed to find me a couple of links which were almost the same (slightly thinner and with different sized pin holes) which I managed to make work. These were one of the options on the TAG Heuer database, so I presume perhaps there were two different bracelets for the 3000 over its six year run?
One slightly odd thing about the 3000 Series is that when the crown is pushed in it will not turn, which can cause some little panic if you don't know and you try to unscrew it! It's the same on both pieces, indeed aside from the dial colour and case/bracelet finishing these are pretty much identical. The black coating on the ball bearings on the steel version have worn a little whereas on the two-tone they are still quite black... but it's really not that noticeable unless you really look closely.
I do like the two tone, but if I could only keep one of them then hands down the plain steel would take the win. Despite its quirky design features it still looks quite timeless, whereas the two tone definitely looks like a watch from the 1980s. In fact, anyone looking for an affordable alternative to an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak need look no further.
In fact I would go as far as to say that the steel 3000 Series is one of the favourite watches of my collection, it's a shame the bezel is a little scuffed at the bottom right, maybe one day I will get it polished or get a new bezel (if such a thing is still available thirty years down the line...).
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