FEATURE: Another Crazy Year of Watch Buying!

 

Ever since I started this blog way back in October 2016 my watch collection has been expanding year on year, some years at a genuinely frightening pace. In fact by the end of 2021 I had in excess of 50 TAG Heuer watches.... which is quite a lot by anyone's reckoning! 

However, 2022 was the first year when this trend was not only halted but reversed, and for the first time I finished the year with a MUCH smaller collection than I started it with. 

The year began slow but steady, right up until I bought my long sought after blue dial Japanese limited edition Grand Carrera... which turned out to be something of a pivotal purchase as far as my TAG Heuer collecting goes. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 1000 Series Dive Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

FEATURE: The C.O.C.O. Council Watch of the Year 2022

Firstly I hope all of my readers had a great Christmas, and thank you again for spending your precious free time here at the TAG Heuer Enthusiast Blogspot. In case you are wondering I am still working on the History of the Carrera, and hopefully that will be up on the site in the next couple of months at the latest. After that I still have a few models to cover including the 1000 Series and the Titanium, and I might re-do the History of the Grand Carrera as well. Needless to say, all those are in the pipeline and will arrive sooner or later. 

Also I am putting together a post about the various 'Senna' watches TAG Heuer have made over the years, in fact as I type this I have literally just sent out emails to the COCO Council asking them to vote for their favourites. So look out for that post soon..

Okay, well, it's finally time to reveal the winner of the 2022 C.O.C.O. Watch of the Year. But first lets have a look at the scores for the top ten models of 2022 and also where they sit in the overall leaderboard. And let's keep in mind that while in 2020 the Silver 160th Carrera easily outscored everything else, last years WOTY winner was narrowly beaten in the scoring by the Monaco Titan... 

FEATURE: The Best and Worst of TAG Heuer 2022

 

If you are a regular reader, you will probably be aware that behind the scenes here at 'TAG Heuer Enthusiast Blogspot' we have a team, or 'council' if you will, of people constantly on-call to appraise and rate all the new releases from our favourite watch brand. Of course we don't have access to the watches before they are released so our 'First Impressions' scores are just that, usually based off little more than photographs and perhaps a live video from one of the big websites.

And so, that is why every December, once all the releases are done, we take stock and look over everything again before giving our 'final' scores (which are then, and only then added to the cumulative leaderboard). Unfortunately, we still don't get hands on with all the watches, but hopefully we will have seen and tried on some of them, and at least the ones we haven't will have had a little time to settle in our minds. After all, some watches may burn bright on first acquaintance while some might take a little time to get us on side.

Now, as you probably know, Jim and I have recently looked back at the year's releases (links at the bottom of the page) so I don't want to spend too much time rehashing all that all over again, but I will make a few comments and reveal the scores for the fifty four watches that didn't make it into this year's top ten.

The top ten scorers and the 'Watch of the Year' (decided on a 'one-vote/one-member' basis, don't forget) will be revealed on the 27th of December, so make sure to come back then and find out which piece took the ultimate prize this year and joined the previous winners in the 'COCO Hall of Fame'. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'US Soccer' Limited Edition by Spicer Greene Jewellers

 

FEATURE: Watch of the Year - The Missing Years

 

It's really not long now until the 'C.O.C.O. TAG Heuer Watch of the Year 2022' is finally announced, and this being the third time we've done this I catch myself already starting to compare this year's results with previous years. After all, everyone loves statistics and being able to compare year on year... so it's really a shame that I didn't initiate this process until 2020, just imagine all the data we'd have if we had started in 2016!

But unfortunately, we didn't. And as I don't fancy the palaver of trying to list every watch from 2016-2019 and then get the Council to vote on them all*, I guess all I can really do is put myself forward as the voice of reason and the ultimate arbiter of good taste and tell you what my top three would have been for those years. :)

*Actually, I did suggest this a while back, but it was poo-poo'd by certain parties!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 7 GMT 'Batman' by Winding Crowns

 

FEATURE: Is the Black Bay 58 the Perfect Watch? by Charlie M (aka 'Imagwai')

 

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The Tudor Black Bay 58 has become something of a 'meme' over the last year or so, such is it's popularity with the members of the TH Forums. Personally, as a tunnel-visioned TAGeristi I don't really see what all the fuss is about, but Charlie M (known to many of you as Imagwai) thinks differently and today he poses the burning question...

 

IS THE BLACK BAY 58 THE PERFECT WATCH?

Could the Black Bay 58 be the perfect watch? Obviously there is some subjectivity in answering a question like that, and if like Rob, you don’t much care for the styling, or if David Beckham irritates you, then you may have already stopped reading. You may also have seen some of the countless fawning articles and forum posts praising this watch and think I’m jumping on the bandwagon with what I’m about to say. But that bandwagon passed by quite a long time ago. Truth be told, it’s only now, about two and a half years since I bought it, that I am really falling for this watch in a big way. I’ll explain that a bit more in a moment, but first let’s take a look at some of the logical reasons why this watch is so perfect…

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M by Black Tag Watches

 

FEATURE: A Look Back at TAG Heuer 2022 - Part 2 (featuring Jim Dollares)

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to the second part of Jim and I's look back over the TAG Heuer releases of 2022. If you haven't already read part one, click the link below:

https://tagheuerenthusiast.blogspot.com/2022/11/feature-look-back-at-tag-heuer-2022-so.html

ROB: Hey Jim, where should we begin with this second part of our chat?

JIM: Well I think I would like to start by hearing your opinion on a watch that could have been great, but left me with a feeling of 'meh'. A watch that has been out for some time now but we see very little of out in the wild. I am speaking of course about the new 43mm Aquaracer GMT.

ROB: Yeah... you know I was really, really, really excited about that one. Like I was genuinely saving for it at one point, months before the release... debating between the bracelet and the cool blue rubber strap, but then I finally saw it in a store and it was like. Wow. Okay... there ain't no way I am buying that. 

It was such a disappointment in the hand. I really thought that blue and white bezel was gonna look absolutely top billy-bollocks and in reality... I didn't like it at all. In fact, if I had to choose between the three Aquaracer GMTs (Pepsi, Batman and... what nickname did we give the blue and white again? The whale, was it? That clearly didn't catch on!) I would 100% go with the Batman first, the Pepsi a distant second and the blue and white not even in the running. And it's so weird because the new Aquaracer is clearly an improvement on the old one technically and yet I am yet to find one I really want to buy.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer x MarioKart Formula 1 Calibre 16 Limited Edition by The Watch Village

 

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Autavias on Offer at TAG Heuer Bicester Village

Call the Store on 01869 249008

If you are looking for a last minute Christmas present for an Autavia enthusiast (and you live in the UK) then I have good news for you. TAG Heuer's Bicester Village store has just received a selection of three hand Autavias which they are selling at a discount of 30%. 

Currently they have pretty much everything from the recently discontinued standard three-hander range, the only real absentee being the green dial, bronze cased WBE5190 (which was always my favourite). In addition they also have the black/silver reverse panda dial Heuer 02 Chronograph (which of course comes with a 5 year warranty due to its in-house movement) and this is offered at a discount of 40%.

Not sure what the future holds for the Autavia range; we currently have just three models - one rather divisive GMT and a couple of very nice looking flyback chronographs. I can imagine the line being discontinued again once they have run through their cycle, but who knows?

Left to right, back row then front:

WBE5116.FC8266 (Blue dial, steel, brown leather) - WAS £2650 / NOW £1850

WBE5114.FC8266 (Smoke dial, steel, brown leather) - WAS £2650 / NOW £1850

WBE5192.FC8300 (Red dial, bronze, red leather) - WAS £3250 / NOW £2300

WBE5191.FC8276 (Brown dial, bronze, brown leather) - WAS £3250 / NOW £2300

CBE2111.FC8226 (Black/Silver dial, steel, brown leather) - WAS £4750 / NOW £2850

WBE5116.EB0173 (Blue dial, steel, bracelet & NATO) - WAS £2800 / NOW £1950

WBE5114.EB0173 (Smoke dial, steel, bracelet & NATO) - WAS £2800 / NOW £1950

Orders can be placed by phone for delivery anywhere in the UK.

Call the store on 01869 249008

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Alter Ego Quartz Watch by Birth Year Watches

 

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Formula 1 'Mexico' Limited Editions

 
WAH1015.FT6026              CAZ2013.BA0876               CAZ2014.BA0876

A few days ago an Instagram poster called 'tagheuermaniac' sent me a photo of a WAH style quartz Formula 1 reminiscent of the Gulf model but with green and red stripes instead of orange and blue. I had never seen this model before so I'll admit I was a little sceptical at first (after all, I have spent more hours than I care to remember trying my best to find and catalogue every TAG Heuer ever made on my 'Gallery' blog and also here in the 'Number Lists' and 'History of' posts), but after doing some more digging I managed to verify that this was indeed a genuine model and in the process uncovered two more 'Mexico' limited edition Formula 1s! 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 'JPS' Heuer 02 Chronograph by Time and Tide

 

FEATURE: Rolex To Sell Certified Pre-Owned Watches Through Their AD Network

I apologise in advance for 'jumping on the Rolex bandwagon', I know it's tedious and I know every watch blogger/YouTuber does it all the time. But this is actually quite a big story and it could potentially influence other Swiss brands (including TAG Heuer) to follow the same path so on this occasion I actually thought it was worthwhile.

For several years now Rolex have been in the position of being able to sell many more watches than they can actually make, and while on the surface this may seem like an enviable position to find oneself in, the reality is slightly different. Sure, their balance sheet is healthy, but you can only have empty showrooms for so long before customers start to get disgruntled. A reasonable wait of say 2 months for your chosen product is acceptable, favourable even as it engenders the product with a desirability factor. For some watches maybe even a 6-12 month wait might be more of a positive than a negative, but when it comes to basic run of the mill watches it creates more problems than it solves.

So what should Rolex do about it? 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Solargraph' Review by Doug FNJ

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Superdiver' 1000M Automatic Watch

 

WBP5A8A.BF0619

Steffans, Northampton, 25th October 2022

One of the most enduring pieces from the 1980s Heuer/TAG Heuer line-up is the 1000M Super Professional, with good pieces still fetching prices well in excess of £1000. The Super Professional eventually left the range around the turn of the century and was briefly replaced by the 500M Aquagraph and subsequently by all manner of 500M Aquaracers, but for the last twenty years if you had your heart set on a 1000M hardcore dive watch you'd have to look for a pre-owned Super Pro or look elsewhere - perish the thought!

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 7 Twin Time Watch by Click Spring