FEATURE: My Top Five White Dial TAG Heuer Watches

 

CW2118.FC6207

When considering 'luxury' products, white can be a tricky colour to utilise well: it can easily look 'inexpensive' or (heaven forbid) 'entry level', but can also work very well... particularly when used as a 'partner' colour or (as with silver dials) if you want a watch that can wear a variety of coloured straps. So I thought I would trawl the TAG Heuer Enthusiast Gallery Blog once again and pick out my favourite white dial watches and try to put them in some kind of order of preference.

One thing that's worth mentioning before we go any further is that some watches that you think have white dials, when you look them up you find they actually have silver dials. One such example was the Carrera Calibre 360 which made my short list but fell out when I looked at the Watchfinder listing and realised it might not actually be white after all. Same goes for the quartz Aquaracer 'Night Diver' which looks white in pictures but definitely looks more silvery in the flesh, which is a bit of a shame really as it rather spoils the monochrome effect.

One watch which definitely is white is the white ceramic ladies Aquaracer, which I would be more than happy to wear if it was made in a larger size. Alas it's only available in a diameter of 35mm which is too small on me for a watch that looks this 'feminine'. A real pity that, cos it would make a nice, unusual addition to my collection.

Then there's the Monaco CW2118 pictured above; man, this wasn't even close and honestly I do think this one looks just a little bit tacky, like a 'knock-off' of the real thing. I can certainly see why they didn't continue down this path anyway... definitely not for me.

Another one which made the short list is the CK111R 2000 Series Searacer. This one has a bright white dial with red and green highlights and was a pretty strong contender. The dial isn't the cleanest looking but I have a bit of a soft spot for it and I'd really like one if I could find it for a sensible price (i.e. £500 not the £750+ it seems to go for on eBay).

And finally a couple of others that are worthy of mention but which didn't make the final cut are the 160th Anniversary 'Montreal' Carrera and the 385.513 classic F1. I kinda like the bonkers Montreal, although again it's definitely not for me and I while I own it (twice) I felt like the Formula 1 didn't stack up to the rest of the competition because the white dial was merely incidental; all the impact of that watch comes from the red strap and case and while the white dial does look good, it's not really that impressive on it's own.

So with that out of the way, here are my top five 'white dial' TAG Heuer watches to date...

#5. CAR2A12.FT6033 Carrera McLaren 1974 L/E

Originally this post began with my 1500 GMT, a watch that I credit with 'changing my mind' about white dials. However someone pointed out to me that they were surprised I hadn't included the Carrera McLaren 1974 Limited Edition watch, and so was I! I must have missed it when I was compiling my shortlist. Anyway, I decided that it deserved to go in, even at the expense of the 1500, which is still very cool.

#4: 530.806K: Pilot Quartz Chronograph

The first piece from my own collection and admittedly the white dial here is serving merely as a backdrop for the gorgeous blue subdials, chapter ring and bezel; but it's so 'clean' it really does look amazing and I couldn't possibly leave it off this list. Nowadays it wears an original blue leather strap (still available from TAG Heuer believe it or not) which looks even better than the bracelet in my opinion.

#3. WI2110.FC6009: S/EL Leather Automatic Watch

Another watch that I've chosen from my own collection, this one is the perfect watch for any strap but also features a stunning dial in it's own right. I bought this primarily because I wanted an S/EL Leather that could wear any of the eight available strap colours (red, garnet red, dark green, torquoise, blue, navy blue, brown and black) and it was only when it arrived from Japan that I realised quite how nice the dial was. It certainly looks a lot higher end than you would imagine with an almost 'enamel' finish to it.

#2. CBE2114.EB0131: Heuer Autavia 'Calibre 11' Ltd Edition

Like most people, I've never seen a CBE2114 in real life so I only have pictures to go from. But I have seen the 'Harrods' special edition which is the closest thing you can get without a blue second hand and I was pretty impressed with that so I feel pretty confident about placing this at number two on my list. Granted the Autavia is a little on the 'heritage' side for my tastes, but this one has the 'right' bezel and the blue details give it a slightly more exciting edge that I really like. I don't like the beads of rice bracelet or the plain black leather strap so I don't know how I'd tackle that if I owned one, but since there's only 100 out there and the prices are (justifiably) through the roof, I'm not losing any sleep over it!

#1. WAY2013.BA0927: Aquaracer Calibre 5 Watch

A lot more readily available is this gorgeous white dial Aquaracer Calibre 5 which I tried on way back in 2017. This model was available in both 43mm and 41mm (WBD2111) with the automatic movement and also in a 41mm quartz (WBD1111). I would say suffer the smaller size and go for the quartz model but unfortunately the quartz has a plain white dial rather than the much more aesthetically pleasing 'slatted' dial found on the Calibre 5. This is a real shame, I would love a 43mm quartz with a slatted dial, but even so this is the coolest white dial TAG Heuer watch to date in my opinion and the only reason I haven't bought one so far is that it reminds me too much of my light grey dial WAJ1111. Still, maybe one day in the not too distant future...

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