Buying Experience: TAG Heuer Aquaracer WBP201C by Jim Dollares

WBP201C.BA0632 

Today we welcome back our Swedish correspondent Jim Dollares who is back to tell you all about the time he went to a shop to buy an Aquaracer, and this time he actually did buy an Aquaracer... eventually.

JIM DOLLARES: In 2021 I wrote a story for the TAG Heuer Enthusiast blog about my pocket full of money and me being on my way to an authorised dealer to buy my very first Aquaracer. On that day I ended up ordering the Tudor Black Bay 58, but let me tell you, the Aquaracer line of watches never left my thoughts or my heart.

A New Aquaracer Design

It is funny when I think back on my emotional journey with the Aquaracer watches. I remember the WAY211B being one of my first true watch loves and obsessions. I spent hours and hours staring at photos of that watch. In 2021 when Frederic presented the updated Aquaracer design I was outraged. How could they ruin the unique and perfect design of the Aquaracer? What is this nonsense with the weirdly shaped indices and the round cyclops? 

Fast forward one year and I had warmed up to the new design and I could sense that familiar tingle in the balls that we all get from a perfect watch. Eventually I tried on the new ones and found myself wanting to go back multiple times just to experience the WBP series of Aquaracer on wrist. But, what initially sold me on the new generation was not the design, it was how it felt in the hand and on wrist. This new generation is what the Aquaracer should have always been; well built, nicely finished and luxurious in hand.

Buying Experience

I ordered the WBP201C from a small, authorised dealer in a little town close to where I live. I knew they did not have it in stock when I went there, but beforehand I had seen that the model was readily available to ship for customers ordering through the tagheuer.com web shop, I therefore felt confident the AD would be able to get one rather quickly. 

Turns out it was not as simple for the AD to get it for me and after making my down payment I soon got news that my watch would take probably 2 months or more to be delivered and they asked me if I wanted to wait. This is when I learnt that unlike the black and blue dial, the silver dial is a ‘special edition’ which apparently means smaller production numbers and longer delivery times. The AD told me if I wanted the black or blue I could have it very quickly.

I was considering ordering from tagheuer.com to get the watch to me within a couple of days but decided against it. I don’t want TAG Heuer to win their war against authorised dealers. At the end of the day, buying luxury watches is an 'experience' and not something I just want to quickly click and buy online. It was thanks to the super friendly and service minded authorised dealer I was able to try the Aquaracer multiple times, ask questions, hesitate around when and what to purchase and so on. I feel these guys are the ones who deserve our hard-earned money once we decide to add a new piece to the collection. 

Since TAG Heuer's central warehouse was obviously stocking the model and had it available online, I interpret this as yet another way of working against AD’s. TAG Heuer is making it more difficult for AD’s to continue their business, making this an indirect attempt from TAG Heuer trying to push more customers to buy online and thereby not having to share the profits with AD’s. 

Did I Choose the Wrong Reference?

Having more than a month to wait and overthink my purchase I was starting to doubt myself and the choice I had made. Is the silver dial really the one I want? Should I change my order and get the orange instead? My friends told me to keep it cool and wait, surely it will be worth waiting for. I am happy to say that yes, this is most certainly the absolute best configuration of the current Aquaracer 300 models.

As is always the case with TAG Heuer, the so-called online renders look nothing like the actual product. I am still fascinated by the fact that a giant watch company like TAG is not able to hire people who can produce product material for their website to show what the watches actually look like. I can imagine very often customers getting pissed off receiving a product that looks nothing like what was presented to them on the website. How bloody hard can it be to take professional photos of watches for your website, seriously?

On a Scale from Super to Mega Awesome, How Super Awesome Is It?

OK, so let’s work our way around the watch and I will tell you about everything that is super awesome. Starting with the most obvious thing, the dial, which instantly draws attention on wrist. TAG Heuer’s ability to manufacture silver dials is brilliant and this one is no different. The dial feels almost alive, shifting from a very light shiny silver in strong light, to a dark mysterious silver with clear structure in low light situations. 

One detail which I was not sure about, were the polished black gold hands and indices, but these turn out to be the biggest positive surprise with this watch. I kid you not when I say that the indices sparkle as if they were diamonds when you turn the watch back and forth. The visual effect is impossible to capture in photos but to me it resembles the way diamond indices catch and reflect the light. High polish rhodium plated indices often used on luxury watches suddenly appear boring in comparison.

Another highlight of the watch is the lume. My goodness, the lume. This is my first experience with bi-coloured lume and the strong execution on this dial is so much fun. You don’t need to fake charge it with a light to enjoy it, just coming from a well-lit room into a darker room puts a big smile on my face. As an older man heading out of bed to pee in the middle of the night I have also noticed that the lume performs superb after many hours in the dark. Very impressive!

The black bezel contrasts nicely with the silver dial, and the bezel does not only look great, turning it is a pure joy of horological pleasure. 60 distinct clicks of satisfaction. The bracelet feels light, yet solid and sophisticated, and I really like how thin the new bracelet is. The clasp is one of the stars of the show and I wonder if I will ever buy a new watch without a quick adjustment clasp again. Lastly, I want to mention the solid case back, which is very well made and looks great. I like how TAG Heuer has constructed the Aquaracer in a way that always aligns the case back perfectly. Totally unnecessary but a very nice touch on a luxury watch.

We can’t talk about an Aquaracer without mentioning the fat elephant in the room. That elephant is of course the infamous ‘calibro cinco’ a.k.a calibre 5 a.k.a Sellita SW shitter 200-1. The movement inside this watch was my biggest hesitant factor and before ordering I did go back and forth on how I felt about it. I have read and heard many bad things about this movement but ended up deciding I need to try it myself. I have never owned a Sellita powered watch before and a part of me feels that if it was pure garbage, surely it would not have survived being the go-to movement for hundreds of thousands of watches sold all over the world every year? 

Conclusion

I have now been rocking the WBP201C pretty much every day for more than two months. I enjoy this watch so much and I keep asking myself why I waited this long to join the Aquaracer party?! I have worn it with a sports coat to dinners, with a shirt in the office, with T-shirt in the gym, with outdoorsy redneck clothes hiking in mountains and many days in the home office in front of my PC. I can definitely see how this watch would serve perfectly as someone’s one watch. One holy silver dialed watch to do it all, in any situation. I hope to be able to be back and give you my thorough long-term review in a year or two. Until then, you will find me and my Aquaracer in pools, showers, lakes and saunas, getting wet and wild together.

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