BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer 2000 Series Regatta Chronograph

 

CK111R.BA0328

Ever since I got interested in watches I've always gravitated towards the unusual pieces, the ones a lot of people might find 'interesting' but not necessarily things they'd actually want for themselves. One perfect example of this is the oh-so 'Avant Garde' Microtimer, and another would be the various 'Regatta' chronographs that TAG Heuer have put out over the years. 

Now you might think that would mean a wealth of cheap as chips watches all for me, but of course these types of watches are produced in smaller quantities, making them difficult to find and not as cheap as you might imagine. Take this 2000 Series CK111R Quartz Regatta Chronograph for example, I think I've only come across this model 2 or 3 times in the last few years with the price generally falling somewhere between £750 and £1000.

So I was pretty excited (to say the least) when I came across this one listed in the high £500s by my favourite Japanese eBay seller 'spirit*age'. Thankfully, no one else bid on the auction (which fortunately finished at a reasonable time of day allowing me to bid 'live') so I got it for the listed price plus about £25 carriage.

I was slightly concerned about the fact that if the watch didn't work properly sending it back would be a bit of a problem (even though 'spirit*age' accepts returns) simply because it would have to go back through customs again, but I'm happy to report that the watch (which is quite complex) works perfectly.

Having said that, it wasn't immediately 'perfect' because when I opened the box and took the watch out the black chronograph seconds hand was pointing to about 11:58. No biggie, I thought, this happens all the time when watches get posted to me, I'll jut pull the crown out and use the pushers to reset the hands.

Except, I could only pull the crown out once, which only gave me access to reset two of the hands and not the one I needed to reset. I figured the crown must pull out further and I did give it a bit of a tug, but I was afraid to pull the damned thing off like I did with my F1 Kirium! Furthermore, the instruction book I had with the watch was in Japanese and didn't seem to include any diagrams of pulling the crown out. Aargh!

Now strangely enough, I already have the Link Searacer, which I assume is the same movement, but I've never had to reset the hands on that and I never got any instructions for that one anyway, so that was no help. I guess I could have gone and got that one and tried it, but I couldn't really be arsed and I didn't know for sure that the movements were the same, so instead I turned to Google in an attempt to locate an instruction manual for the CK111R.

This came to absolutely nothing, but in my searches I came across a website that listed Regatta Chronographs and it gave me the movement number for the ETA movement, and then I found an instruction manual for that which indicated that the crown definitely did pull out twice (I mean deep down I knew it had to, but I just needed that extra reassurance before I started pulling at the crown).

So I tried again and it still didn't seem to want to come out, until I switched hands and used the nail on my left thumb, whereupon the crown just popped out to its second position (...a scarily long way out I might add!). Once I'd sorted that out I was able to reset the chrono hand and test the watch, and it passed with flying colours. Phew!

(Also, I just had to move the watch an hour forward as we hit British Summer Time and the crown came out no problem at all...maybe it hadn't been out for a while?)

The watch is in fantastic condition, the only marks anywhere are on the raised parts of the bezel, but even they aren't particularly heinous. I did need a couple of extra links since the bracelet was too small (always something to consider when buying from Japan) but I managed to secure those easily with a quick email to the guys at TAG Heuer Bicester Village.

All in all I am super chuffed with this one, it's taken a long time to get it but it was definitely worth the wait, as indeed was another recent purchase I will be posting about soon.

CHECK OUT MY 'REGATTA WATCHES' POST FROM 2018 BY CLICKING HERE