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About three weeks ago I posted about a gold/black 3000 Series quartz chronograph that I found for sale on eBay in America (link at the bottom of the page). I wrote the post the same day as I spoke to the seller and they informed me that the watch had just been sold, but as it transpired by the time the post had been published on this blog I had already purchased it, hence the cryptic 'to be continued...' at the end of that post.
Later the same evening the seller contacted me to say that the watch was available again as the person who wanted to buy it previously had pulled out. I tried to clarify the position on the postage charges and the seller just kept saying 'look in the YouTube video', which I did... to no avail. I went back to him and asked him again but he just kept saying 'look in the video' and I eventually realised he meant look in the text under the video, where his email address was.
Long story short, he wanted me to purchase off eBay, which I really did not want to do. That, combined with the sudden 'availability' of the watch after it had supposedly been sold was sending up all kinds of warning flags and my wife was dead against me buying the watch full stop because she (reasonably) assumed the seller was flaky as hell.
I was wary too, but I really wanted the damn watch and eventually I managed to convince the seller to sell to me through eBay. Then for some reason the sale wouldn't complete, I put it in my basket but I couldn't checkout. I was getting very frustrated with this whole endeavour and assumed the seller was causing problems to try and get me to buy off eBay.
In the end the seller had to take the sale down and relist the watch again in a different category and then I could complete the checkout. I had mixed feelings honestly, part of me was really happy that I had managed to buy the watch (through eBay, with all the protections etc) but part of me wondered if I would ever receive the watch and if I did would it be as good as it seemed?
Well, I did receive the watch, and while it wasn't quite in 'perfect' working order, it was in amazing condition and came exactly as described with the original cardboard box, plastic barrel case with display stand and three extra links.
I think what happened with the carriage charges was that in the initial listing, when the page changed it added the estimated customs charges on to the actual carriage and that's why it was showing £173 carriage. When he relisted it it came out at a much more reasonable £45, but after my recent experience buying my wife's raspberry Formula 1 from the USA I knew I would still have to pay probably another £100-150 on arrival.
The sale was completed on the 6th of January and I was given a delivery date of 21st Jan - 10th Feb. In actuality the watch arrived on the 26th of Jan, so just under three weeks delivery. International delivery seems a bit of a crap-shoot, I've had a Formula 1 arrive from Japan in 48 hours, but some take two weeks or more. I guess this was pretty slow, but it was sent via eBay's own delivery system so I guess they are doing it as cheaply as possible to maximise the profits. I was happy it was going through eBay though, so there was no arguments if I needed to claim against the seller.
I was expecting a call from the carrier service asking me to pay the charges before delivery, but then one day my wife rang me from home and told me there was a rather large parcel there. When I opened it I found a lot of brown paper and another cardboard box, which I opened to find yet more brown paper and a very, very small white TAG Heuer outer box.
Inside was the black plastic barrel box I had seen in the pictures, but I was perturbed as to how the watch fitted inside as it didn't seem big enough. All was revealed once I opened the parcel and found that the watch and cushion lays on it's side when packed away but can be positioned upright for display purposes, a very clever design from TAG Heuer!
The watch itself is in amazing condition, I've always been reluctant to buy any 1980s gold-plated watches because the gold always seems to be coming away. Even some watches that look okay from the front, when you see photos of the back there's always chunks falling off here and there. But this one really is as close to immaculate as you're going to get. It is a couple of millimeters larger than my three handed 3000 Series pieces, but because it's thicker it fools you into thinking it's the same size.
A curious feature is that the crown is further back on the case side than the pushers for the chronograph, I guess this indicates some kind of chronograph module placed on top of the basic quartz module? It would make sense as the movement is clearly set quite far back to allow for the cyclops which is built into the watch's dial, a much nicer idea than a bulbous 'bubble' sticking out of the crystal if you ask me.
Of the three links that came with the watch, one was slightly bent, but a little tapping with the soft end end of a jewellers hammer straightened it out. As the 3000 Series was fitted with split pins rather than collars and pins it's actually a lot easier to do these yourself, although you have to be aware that with watches of this age the pins can break when you try to remove them. As such I was a little hesitant to do it, but after a few days I took the plunge and it was relatively easy.
I put all three links back in to the bracelet initially as there were three holes left on the micro adjustment, but having done that I realised that you have to leave three holes spare for the diving extension to fold over. So, having put all three links back in I then had to split the bracelet again to take one back out. But again this was easy enough so no big drama.
You might remember from my post the other day that my other two 3000 Series watches have some 'Heuer' branded parts and this one is no different. In fact of the four logos on the watch, only the one on the dial is 'TAG Heuer' so this is my most Heueresque piece to date. At least the one you can actually see most of the time is, ahem.... correct.
As you can see below and above the backplate and clasp are both stamped Heuer and the (quite small) crown also has a tiny Heuer logo on it. Also below you can see that even on the back of the watch the gold plating is in excellent condition.
Another curious feature of the watch is that both the running seconds and the chronograph second hand tick every half a second, this is the first time I've seen this on any of my watches. I guess it could mean that the movement has been replaced, or maybe that's just how they were back then. Next time I change the battery I will have a closer look and see what writing there is on the movement.
Speaking of the chronograph, while the watch keeps incredibly accurate time (dead on after three days) the chronograph is less than perfect. Initially the second hand was running very inconsistently, missing beats and stopping after about 100 secs, since I have put the links back in and had it on the wrist it is working a lot better. It's still not completely right, I think it's still missing a beat around the two position, but it's definitely improving and hopefully if I keep running it it will improve further. I'm hoping that wearing it is warming the oils and helping the chronograph get up and running, but we'll see.
If not I guess at some point it would require servicing, but if I'm completely honest I would be more concerned if the timekeeping was off as I very rarely use a chronograph and I'm not sure I want to spend probably £300 fixing a watch that is running just fine apart from that.
I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't a little disappointed when I found the black and gold 3000 Series I posted about on Tuesday, but... having since received this and realised how nice it really is, and taking into account the fact that that watch would have cost me at least twice what this one did, that this is a TAG Heuer rather than a Heuer (which, rightly or wrongly is my 'thing') and that this is quartz whereas that one is a (potentially expensive to repair, old automatic) I think I made the right choice. But, in a perfect world of course I would take both.
Since I was never called upon to pay the import fees, I purchased this piece for just £436 plus the aforementioned £45 carriage... which considering I never thought I'd find a 3000 Series chronograph of any type for a sensible price, particularly one in such fine aesthetic condition, is perhaps one of the greatest bargains in my collection. All in all, I really can't think of a better way I could have started my collecting year.
:)
January 13th 2021 post:
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