262.206
For a long while now it's been clear that my collection has had a rather obvious 'missing piece', that being a 2000 Series. True I do have the 2000 Multigraph and more recently the 2000 Tristar, but neither of those models are truly 2000 Series watches - they just use the same case and bracelets. I did try and re-buy my old black dial 2000 Series a little while back, but when it arrived I realised that it wasn't quite the same (it had a polished 12 instead of a lumed one) and besides that the crown needed replacing and I wasn't getting myself into a £300 repair bill while the option to return it was available.
I put the idea of getting another 2000 Series to the back of my mind because while I liked them I knew the bracelet would cause me trouble (I ended up buying rubber straps for both my original black dial 2000 and my Multigraph because the clasps on the bracelet drove me insane), which was a shame because I would have loved to get the men's version of my wife's blue dial 2000, but I knew it wasn't to be.
On the other hand, the Tristar bracelet (which is the same as the 3000 Series bracelet incidentally) never caused me any problems; but the older 2000s always tended to be rather more expensive. Then the other day I came across this 2000 quartz chronograph on eBay at £400 with the option to make offers and I had a sudden urge to buy it.
My wife also has a grey dial 2000 (this was her second TAG Heuer and the one she initially wore daily until she built her own collection) which I had always liked the look of, so this one really appealed to me, and the icing on the cake was the chronograph movement with the accompanying thicker case. In the pictures the watch was shown on an aftermarket leather strap with a 'Heuer' buckle, but it also showed the bracelet (which appeared to be full length or close to) but no end links...
I fired off a message to the seller to check that they had the end links and it transpired that he had but he had forgotten to load the photo of them onto the listing. He duly loaded them up and, now satisfied that I wasn't letting myself in for a wild goose chase, I offered a reasonable £350.
An hour or so passed with no response and I figured the seller was probably going to let my offer run the full 24 hours and then maybe accept at the last minute if he didn't get a better offer. But then suddenly the offer was accepted and I got a message apologizing for the delay in accepting as he'd had to pop out.
After I had paid, I noticed another 262.206 had appeared on eBay and for some reason it made me a little nervous. I started to get paranoid and look through the seller's feedback a little more closely and suddenly it all looked a little fishy - you know, lots of 'Private Listings' etc... and I began to wonder if I hadn't made a schoolboy error in my haste to add this to my collection.
In actual fact, I needn't have worried. The watch arrived promptly (albeit in a fake barrel case... not the first time that's happened) but the watch was in excellent condition and even the chronograph appears to work as it should. Result!
The (non TAG Heuer) strap it was on was nothing special (black leather with white stitching) and the 'Heuer' buckle was clearly not original, so I took that off and put it back on the original bracelet, which fortunately had exactly the right number of links to fit my wrist. I much prefer it on the bracelet, it just looks 'right' and further confirms my theory that aftermarket straps never look quite how they should. I haven't looked into it but it wouldn't surprise me if TAG Heuer did sell this watch on a black leather strap at some point, but this one looked a bit too thick and the white stitching was a bit off-putting for me, especially with a rather matt grey dial.
I'm a little conflicted about the dial, I do like the grey, but then when I see a later 2000 with a gorgeous blue dial I feel a little cheated. But then I know the bracelet on that one will drive me mad and it won't look the same on rubber. Besides, I only have one other grey dial watch and several blue ones, so it's all good.
Interestingly, you may remember when I got my gold plated 3000 Series from America I was slightly perturbed by the fact that the running seconds and the chronograph second hand beat twice per second. I did wonder if perhaps it had had the movement replaced with something a little weird, but I notice this 2000 Series which is of a similar vintage does exactly the same thing. What's more the second track on the dial has the half seconds marked also - so clearly the watch is supposed to beat twice per second or that would be completely pointless! In fact now I have realised this, looking again at the gold 3000 I can see that it also has the half seconds marked on the rehaut, so clearly that movement is correct too.
All in all, it's another splendid addition to the family and the more time I spend with it the more I like it and actually the more I appreciate that grey dial...
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