FEATURE: Finally the Orange Dial Formula 1 Becomes the Watch I Always Knew It Could Have Been

WAZ101A

As a rule I'm not one for messing about with watch straps. I know a lot of people derive a great deal of pleasure from switching them out and spending lots of money on the finest Italian products, but to me it's almost impossible to bring to mind any watch that looks better on anything other than its original strap. So when I bought my orange dial Formula 1 a couple of years ago it was a source of great irritation that the very cool 'looking' nylon strap was not only massively uncomfortable but also handicapped by two huge, shiny and very sharp strap retainers!

I tried, I really did. But the nylon strap really irritated my wrist and I needed an alternative; so I did what any sensible person would do, I looked at which other straps were available for the 43mm Formula 1 range. I believe I asked at the time if the BA0842 bracelet would fit and no one could tell me for sure, so instead I plumped for the perforated rubber strap found on several current and recent quartz and automatic Formula 1s and which I had tried previously on the black PVD Calibre 5 Formula 1.

When I got it I was slightly underwhelmed by its appearance, but happy that I could finally wear my new Formula 1 without needing to bath my wrist in Vaseline. Some people told me the nylon straps are tough to start with but wear in after a couple of months. Which is fine, but as someone who wears my watches infrequently due to the number of pieces I own a 'couple of months' wearing in was likely to take me a couple of years, and besides... I don't expect to endure a couple of months of irritation when I spend £1200 on a bloody watch thank you very much!

So the rubber came and it was okay. Not great, but at least it was reasonably comfortable... but I never really loved it. It was just the least bad option. Then TAG Heuer released the new Red Bull F1 which came on a new style of blue rubber strap, followed by the three metallic dial F1s that came on green, yellow and red rubber straps respectively. Aha, I thought... maybe soon they will release something on one of these nice new rubber straps but in black, I can buy one of those and replace the one on my orange F1. But of course, they haven't. 

And so time marched by, and I realised I wasn't really wearing my orange F1 nearly as much as I should be and a large part of the reason why was the strap. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was annoying. For some reason it was never quite right, it was either too tight or it flapped around (perhaps because the rubber is just too thick?) in a way that my Senna F1 (the one with the red/black rubber strap) never has. And so I resolved it was time to sort this out once and for all.

Since the orange F1 was released several F1's that originally only came out on straps (the older Gulf, the Aston Martin and the lime/grey for example) had been re-issued with the BA0842 bracelet and I figured that surely it must fit my watch too. I mean it seems like a no brainer, but if you've ever had any dealings with TAG Heuer and watch straps you will know that assuming anything can get you in a lot of bother and is best avoided.

Regardless I figured it would be enormously unlucky and unlikely that the orange F1 had some peculiarity about it that meant the BA0842 bracelet wouldn't fit and so I enquired about the cost and was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually a good bit cheaper than I expected it to be at £180. That seemed very reasonable to me and I ordered one from Maxine at the TAG Heuer boutique at Meadowhall in Sheffield.

The bracelet arrived quickly, though because I wasn't 100% sure it would fit I waited until I could physically go to the store and have them fit it rather than having them send it to me in the post. To my great joy, not only did the bracelet fit perfectly but the watch looked absolutely amazing... which rather begs the question why TAG Heuer never sold it on the bracelet in the first place.

Sure, the bracelet isn't the most refined, it's no Grand Carrera bracelet and it has some slightly sharp edges, but these will sort themselves out over time. Most importantly I could finally get a nice fit and though I feared the bracelet might make the watch look a little boring and ordinary it actually focussed all your attention on the magnificent orange textured dial.

I just wish I'd bought the bracelet in the first place, especially since IIRC the rubber strap was over £100. Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk and all that... at least now I finally I have the watch I wanted and the watch I always knew it could be. If you have an orange F1 and you hate the original strap as much as I did then I can only suggest picking up a bracelet, honestly my pictures don't do it justice... maybe this was TAG Heuer's plan all along, sell the watches and then ship £500,000 worth of bracelets later? Genius!