Visit any watch forum and you will always find a thread where people are discussing which straps they are wearing on their watches, where they came from, how much they cost and which exotic animals were killed in the process. No word of a lie, someone on the THF Forum has watch straps made of giraffe and hippo leather - I can't even with that. But who am I to cast aspersions, do I not own a pair of brightly coloured sharkskin straps for my 4000 Series? Why yes I do... and here they are.
Generally speaking I am a bit of an old school conservationist when it comes to straps, and I've never ventured outside the TAG Heuer fold when it comes to switching things up. I don't know whether it's because I've spent so much time studying the history of TAG Heuer, but if I see any TAG Heuer watch on a non factory strap it instantly rubs me up the wrong way. For some reason aftermarket straps just look 'wrong' to me... and usually 'cheap' into the bargain. I remember the time when our Swedish correspondent Jim Dollares sent me photos of his super cool original Formula 1 Red Bull quartz chrono on a red 'tropic' rubber strap. I was very nearly sick in my mouth and this only abated when he saw sense and put it back on the bracelet, just as our Lord Jean Claude Biver intended.
Unfortunately neither Jim nor I could find a photograph of this offensive combination, so this will have to do!
I mean, I get it. TAG Heuer straps are expensive. Very expensive. Especially if you want to order something that needs a deployant clasp as well. I recently spent £197 just so I could put a rubber strap on my Calibre S SLR for example - £67 for the clasp and £130 for the rubber strap, but at least it has a unique and cool design (the venting mimics the air inlets on the flanks of the Mercedes Benz SLR supercar, oh yes!). There is a similar rubber strap for sale on eBay for a fraction of the cost, but for some reason I can't bring myself to go that route. Which is silly perhaps, but who looks silly when they turn their wrist over and the clasp doesn't have that sweet TAG Heuer shield on it, eh?
This last weekend I made of list of jobs I needed to do, one of which was to fit the rubber strap to my SLR. It had been sitting on a shelf since November and while initially I hesitated because I wanted to make sure I had some cool photos of the watch on the bracelet, time kept ticking by and I kept putting it off. Finally, having crossed every other job off my list I decided I was going to switch the strap, and so, despite it being 12.30AM, I donned my reading glasses and grasped my strap changing tool (...no, not the potentially super fragile one I got from the TAG Heuer website, the proper one).
The bracelet came off reasonably easily actually, and the rubber went on pretty easily too. It was only when it came time to fit the clasp that I struggled, and this eventually proved to be because the clasp I had wasn't the right one for that particular strap. Closer inspection showed that the plastic bag had one number on it, but the clasp had a slightly different number stamped into it. Botheration!
By the time you read this I may well have the replacement clasp, TAG Heuer apologized and said the new one should be here in 2-3 days... in the meantime I set about changing other straps, just because I could; I had gotten a taste for it now and I wasn't remotely tired anyway. I started with the Pilot, which has been on the blue leather strap for about 3 years and then progressed to the black dial S/EL which has been on a black leather strap since it came back from being serviced 2-3 years ago. As such the bracelet, which was refinished during the service, is still in pristine condition - but I have to say the watch looks strangely smaller on the bracelet than it did on the leather, even if the overall aesthetic is better to my eyes.
Finally I decided to switch out the bracelet on my newly repaired Aquaracer 'Chronotimer'. You may remember I recently had it serviced due to it losing time, but when it came back the backlight was not working and it had to go back again. Well, I'm happy to report that TAG Heuer did get it back to me quickly as promised and that the backlight works just fine now, so that's a relief!
The Chronotimer shares the same case as the Calibre S Aquaracer, which I also own (with a yellow dial) and when I bought that watch I wanted it on the black rubber strap but could only find it on a bracelet. So I bought the strap thinking that 'one day' I might put the Calibre S back on the bracelet and then I could use the rubber on the Chronotimer. The Calibre S went back on the bracelet last year and the rubber strap has been loitering in the box (still reeking of vanilla) ever since, until Sunday night (or more accurately Monday morning) when it was fitted to the CAF1010 for the very first time.
I kind of expected not to like it, and thought I would probably switch it straight back - one of the reasons I've never got round to trying it before to be honest. But in actual fact I really liked the new look. It makes the watch a good bit lighter on the wrist for one thing, and the black rubber works well with the black part of the bezel and the dial. I'm sure I'll switch back at some point, because I also really like the Chronotimer on the bracelet... but not immediately. Maybe in a couple of years?
I still have the fear of scratching my watches when changing straps; I managed to do these four without doing that but I have done it in the past and so for me 'changing a strap' will probably always be something I approach with apprehension. And to be honest I kind of like only changing out straps infrequently... I like that it feels like a whole new watch and I don't think you'd get that feeling if you changed the strap every five minutes. Maybe if straps were easier to change and didn't involve sharp tools threatening the polished surfaces of my watches I would be more eager to engage with it... but as it is I think it will be a while before I venture into my strap box again.
No comments:
Post a Comment