OWNED: TAG Heuer 3000 Series Quartz Chronograph

 
237.406

Yet again I am writing an 'Owned' post as a formerly cherished watch heads out the door to its new keeper, and yet again I am surprisingly unmoved by the latest defection from my collection. Which surprises me in a way because I was so excited when this one arrived two and a half years ago from the USA. But over the last year or so my attitude to collecting watches has changed considerably and right now I'm sitting at 31 pieces, which means I've almost (but not quite) halved the number of watches I own with still probably more to face the door.

In my naivety I thought I could just keep collecting forever, amassing more and more pieces until either the money ran out or the wife left me... but then one day I realised that these things break, especially the older ones I was collecting - and when they break they cost money. Sometimes more than they are worth. Now that wouldn't be a problem if I had one or two cheaper watches that I really, really loved but when you have sixteen plastic F1s that are 30 years old you start to wonder if it wouldn't just be better to sell up. 

And so that's what I did. And as the eBay bargains slipped away so the net tightened on some of the watches I wasn't originally intending to sell. The 237.406 is one of those and it's one that's always had a problem right from when it arrived. At one point I thought it had righted itself, but unfortunately it was short lived and so I ultimately had to sell it as it was (basically a perfectly functioning watch with a faulty chronograph).

Which was annoying as it meant I only got about £490 for it instead of the £800 I had provisionally sold it for previously (a lousy eBay buyer who pulled out, although just as well since it would have gone South anyway once the fault re-occured). There was also interest from a guy on eBay who himself was selling the same watch for £1350 (yeah, good luck with that) but he only offered me £400 when it was on for £850, plus I didn't want to sell to him since the cheeky bastard was using one of my wrist shots of my watch to sell his watch! Unbelievable. 

My fascination with the 3000 Series started years ago, but seeing a two-tone chronograph in the TAG Heuer museum in 2018 solidified my desire to get one. Before that I managed to get hold of a two-tone three hander (since sold) and a steel three hander, which is my keeper 3000 and one I would be happy to spend money on to keep going. It wasn't until 2021 that I finally found a 3000 Chrono at a reasonable price, albeit in the USA, a deal that seemed shaky as hell but worked out in the end (you can read more about that HERE).

The watch was in great condition, unlike many gold plated watches of the era, but I never really got used to wearing it. I find two-tone much less jarring than full gold on the wrist, but I still secretly yearn for one of the black/gold chronographs or better yet one of the super rare full black three handers that I think were only sold in Japan (and which bizarrely had 'Heuer' logos on the dial... in 1988). But the few of these that I have seen have been in terrible condition unfortunately. I don't know, somehow it always made me think of those gold coloured Casio's that teenaged girls and Swedish Jim wear.

I'm not sure whether the faulty chronograph was part of the problem or whether I would never have truly connected with the watch anyway. It had a strange movement (shared by the 2000 Series of the day) which ticked twice per second and this made me wonder if such a movement was even available anymore. I never looked into it and maybe it's a common movement (I'm not a watchmaker after all) but it didn't help and once I'd decided to sell it that was it really.

Again I am surprised how easy it has been to part with my watches, which just shows that I must be choosing the right ones to let go. It's not as simple as saying sell the ones you don't wear, because some of my favourite pieces get very little wrist time (Microtimer and the black WAY208C Aquaracer to name two) although I am hoping that as the collection continues to shrink I will have more wrist time available to share out between the watches that I do decide to keep.