OWNED: TAG Heuer S/EL Quartz WG111C Watch

WG111C

It took me a while to get hold of this one, I'd seen one on eBay a long time ago but I absolutely was not prepared to spend £800 for a three handed S/EL just because it had a red dial. Okay, it's a lot harder to find than the black dial but still, that's still at least £300 over the top.

So I waited and watched and then my wife managed to get hold of her red dial S/EL at an extremely good price and once I'd seen that I knew I really wanted one. And so the search began again and then one day last November I got lucky too.

This watch was on eBay with a starting bid of £350 and since I was the only person to place a bid that's exactly what I paid for it.

I love the styling of the S/EL (which is just as well since I have three of them in total) but the red dial really makes this one stand out from the crowd - I guess it catches my eye when I'm choosing a watch to wear too as since it arrived it's quietly become one of my most worn watches, something that slightly surprised me when I did my post about wrist time at the end of March.

The watch is in pretty good condition for it's age, although there is a slight patination to the lume and hands, which is a shame as my wife's red S/EL is pretty much perfect in that regard. Both watches have some light scratches to the highly polished bezel though, something which is pretty much impossible to avoid unless you really baby your watch.

With its bold red dial I'm sure the WG111C isn't going to be one that has 'universal' appeal; even now sometimes I still look at it and wonder if it doesn't look slightly odd, something I've never felt about a black or blue dial watch, or even my yellow dial Aquaracer Calibre S come to that. But then, when you have a large number of watches it's good to have some that stand out since you don't really want a watch box full of black dial stainless steel pieces, do you? I think part of that is because the red of the TAG Heuer logo doesn't mesh well (or perhaps it meshes too well) with the red of the dial.

As ever the S/EL bracelet is super comfortable and fortunately when the watch arrived it fitted my wrist perfectly. I say fortunately because my wife's S/EL had to be sent away to be altered - even though it came with the instruction booklet which made it all sound so easy! It proved not to be the case at all...

In the wrist-shot above it looks quite substantial, but this picture is very misleading. It's quite slender and it measures just 37/38mm so it's definitely on the smaller side for a modern watch (current Aquaracers are 41 or 43mm in diameter for comparison). I've found that I can wear anything from a 35mm to a 45mm though, you just get used to these things and the truth is you have to if you want to wear watches from the 1980s and 90s. I believe there might be a 40mm case S/EL chronograph, but I've never actually seen one close up so I can't be 100% sure about that, it could just be eBay sellers including the crown in the measurements (always something to be wary of!).

While the dial is quite simple, there is one small detail you might not have noticed which elevates it somewhat. The dial is actual on two levels, with the central section lower than the outer section where the hour batons sit. To separate the two parts of the dial TAG Heuer have added a very delicate silver line that you only really notice when it catches the light. I'm not sure whether this is an applied metal ring or whether it's 'painted' on to the dial, but it's a nice touch and adds a touch of class to an otherwise 'sporty' dial. Which is just what it was designed to do I'm sure, after all 'S/EL' stands for 'sport elegance'. 

A few days ago the watch started to indicate that its battery needed changing (jumping four seconds at a time) and so I procured a Renata 371 from eBay and took the back off to make the switch. I was pleased to see the movement looked in good condition with no obvious signs of water incursion and also it was nice to see 'TAG Heuer' printed prominently on the movement too.

There's not much to go wrong with this watch as its only complication is a date function; that works perfectly and the crown screws down nicely, so the only minor niggle is the ageing of the lume. Maybe one day I'll send it back to TAG Heuer for an overhaul and a re-lume, after all it's probably due a service by now even though it keeps excellent time.