CAF101D.FT8011
If you notice, at the top of the page there is a tab marked 'Direct Searches for the TAG Heuer Enthusiast Gallery Blog', this is an 'ongoing' project that has been made infinitely more difficult thanks to Google redesigning the blogging platform so that accessing posts from the dim and distant past via the back door is almost impossible. Never the less, I am still working away at relabelling every post with the case material and dial colour and I will get there eventually.
I can tell you that all the Monacos have been relabelled now and as of me writing this post, all the yellow dial watches have been relabelled too!
Of course the idea is that finding all the yellow dial watches to write this post would simply be a case of clicking on this link:
And of course it does work now... it's just been arrived at the wrong way round.
Thanks to Google and their pointless meddling! 😡
Anyhoo... personal blogging gripes aside, let's turn to the task in hand shall we? Namely, picking my top five yellow dial TAG Heuer watches, that should be fun right?
Aaaaaaaah, well... not so much. You see, one glance at the page linked above will quickly reveal that there are in fact only six different watches to choose from, it's just that five of them are available on either a black rubber strap or a steel bracelet. And of those, well... two are monumentally unsatisfactory, while a third is merely, ummm... not so good.
So really, this is a 'Top 3' with the addition of the two 'least worst' of the remaining three watches.
Just so you know.
I mean, Heaven forbid someone reads this article and thinks that I actually chose numbers four and five from a varied pool of options. I know my taste is often questionable but even I have to draw the line somewhere!
Let's get into it...
#5 AQUARACER (WAF1012.FT8010)
(Stuart Minion Special Edition)
First of all, whatever your feelings about rubber straps, I personally think that if you're having a yellow dial then a black rubber strap is the best option. It just looks 'better' to me, and so to give these watches the best possible presentation I have chosen pictures where the watch is on a black rubber strap..
Even so, this watch is clearly not winning any awards for beauty. It narrowly avoids the gong for 'worst dressed' only because this small seconds version lacks the subdials found on the CAF101D above, and I have to say - this picture flatters this watch no end. I have seen this watch in the Bicester Village outlet and it is spectacularly ugly. The yellow is much paler in person and to be honest I was almost sick in my mouth.
I know they have used this small seconds design before on different watches, and I don't have a problem with it per-se, but against this yellow background it can't avoid looking like a stupid, grinning mouth... and for me that is a problem.
So, number five it may be here, but this is still one to avoid at all costs!
#4. AQUARACER (CAF1011.BA0821)
(Breitling Aerospace Homage)
This is a watch I actually own, albeit not in this dial variant. No, I did contemplate buying this one in yellow, but thankfully I came to my senses and purchased it in black instead, which looks infinitely better in my opinion. This is just... bizarre. But it's one of those where you look at it sometimes and you think 'Okay, it's actually not so bad', but then two minutes later you think 'No, it's horrific!'.
On the black dial variant of course, those oddly shaped and positioned digital screens blend with the background and the only part that's clearly visible is the chrome edged oblong at the bottom of the dial. But here we have a black 'rainbow' across the top half of the dial and a square date window that's too close to the chrome surround (which for some reason often seems to fall off on the yellow dial version...).
I mean, if you own this watch, you may well love it, and if I had bought it I might well love it too... I'm just glad I didn't.
#3. FORMULA 1 (382.513)
Finally a watch I can really get behind and one that I personally own. This yellow dial Formula 1 is a whole lot of fun and with the silver detailing around the edge of the dial it stands out as perhaps my favourite of all the 'classic' Formula 1 dials. It's a pity they didn't make this with a black bezel and strap* (the black/yellow version is reversed with a black dial), but even so it works well with the grey.
Best of all you can pick these up in great condition for less than £200 if you know where to look (Japan), but just remember these watches are rather small by modern standards.
*You can see a yellow/black F1 by clicking HERE, this was not an official model, but someone has clearly fitted a black strap and bezel to a 382.513, on reflection I think the official black/yellow version is better...
#2. FORMULA 1 (CA1213)
The only watch on this list that I haven't actually seen in person, albeit I did briefly own a similar watch with a white dial. Again, I know I said these watches look better on black rubber straps, but the black rubber strap that this one comes on is a little bit odd (and I was really talking about the Aquaracers anyway) so here it is on the bracelet.
These second generation colourful dial Formula 1 chronographs hold their value well, I can't actually find one for sale right now, but I know when I was considering one a couple of years ago they were upwards of £750. Too much for me when white dial models were half the price, although I ended up selling mine anyway, and losing on it - so that was smart!
#1 AQUARACER (CAF7013.FT8011)
Was there ever any doubt what would be my number one choice for this post? This one is not just my favourite yellow dial TAG Heuer by a country mile, it's also one of my favourite watches period. This one looks good on the steel bracelet, but for me the black rubber strap lifts it even more and works so well because it plays off the (stationary) black part of the rotating bezel.
This one also features the amazing 'Calibre S' movement which is a delight to play with and, though you won't notice it at first sight, the dial is actually decorated with very fine concentric circles in orange (to match the tip of the second hand and the subdial hands). Sure, not everyone likes the way the subdials are displayed, and I can accept that... but crucially they don't make a smiley face and on the wrist this one really works. The lume is excellent too and the fitted, branded rubber strap is well worth the money.
I can't recommend this one highly enough and if you can't stomach the yellow dial you can also get it in black or blue (and silver too, if you absolutely must).
So there we are, my 'Top 5' yellow dial TAG Heuer watches... no wait, I can't leave this without addressing the elephant in the room.
CAF101D.FT8011
Honestly, what where they thinking? Rarely have I come across a watch as unappealing as the CAF101D Aquaracer, even on a black rubber strap... and all the worse perhaps because it has so much in common with the magnificent CAF7013. I mean, how do you screw a watch dial up so badly from such a good starting point?
I don't know, maybe you like your watch to look like it has an idiotic smiling face on the dial? Some people like Konstantin Chaykin's 'Joker' watch after all... not me, for sure, and while the colour does accentuate the problem slightly, to be honest it's not exactly a 'looker' in blue either.
CAF101C.BA0821
Can we also talk about the ham-fisted application of the 'Grand Date', usually a complication that brings gravitas and style to a watch dial, but no... not this time. Here it looks like it was conceived by a blind man, out of his mind on Absinthe and armed only with a chisel. I mean what is going on with that bizarre, curved surround? I guess we should be thankful that it's less visible on the yellow version... on this blue dial it looks even more perplexingly terrible!
On top of that it's massively cluttered, and the yellow dial lacks the vibrancy of the CAF7013 (apparently those orange circles really do make all the difference), in short it's a mess of a watch and easily the worst yellow dial watch TAG Heuer have ever made, if not one of the ugliest dials ever made period.
CAZ101AC.BA0842
I knew there wasn't a huge selection of yellow dial TAG Heuer watches, but I thought there was more than six. It seems a shame there hasn't been one in the range for quite a few years now, but maybe yellow is best left as an accent colour, like on the current 'carbon dial' CAZ101AC?
Yellow dials are fun, but I don't think many people would want their only watch to have a yellow dial, it's more an occasional thing, at least it is for me anyway.
Check out more of my 'TOP FIVES' by clicking HERE
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