FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Watches of Switzerland' Calibre 9 Limited Edition Watches

WBP2147.BA0622                                    WBP2416.BA0622

Earlier in the year TAG Heuer & Watches of Switzerland released what is almost certainly the coolest Aquaracer of 2023, the titanium Calibre 5 WBP208D.BF0631. But not content with just one exclusive model this year, they've only gone and done it again... with not one but two new ladies automatics!

Now, let's not get too excited, after all these are basically the same old 30mm Aquaracers with different dials; but still it's nice to see the ladies getting a limited edition for a change. However, it seems that (as usual) the renders promise one thing but the reality is quite different...

This was the first photo I saw of the 'caramel' dial and wow does that look awful or what? In the render it reminded me of the times when Cameron Diaz and Uma Thurman used to appear in the TAG Heuer catalogues looking elegant and sophisticated... but unfortunately here it looks anything but.

Now as it happens I have already seen these two as my wife and I paid a visit to the WOS-owned TAG Heuer boutique in Meadowhall, Sheffield on Saturday and to my surprise my wife really liked the pink one. I say 'surprised' because usually she only likes mother of pearl when it's a darker colour and this looked quite pale to me. 

Admittedly it looks quite pink in my photo above, but it looked a lot paler in the hand (see below) and to be fair the caramel didn't look quite as bad as I anticipated from that photo. I mean it wasn't a revelation or anything, but that photo does seem to capture it in a particularly unfortunate light. Still, we should applaud TAG Heuer for trying different colours as in the past the ladies ranges have been notoriously conservative. Also the boutique told me they'd already sold one of the caramel dial models so obviously someone liked it. 

In the past I've mentioned that I prefer the original brushed bezels, but with these more delicate colours I'm not sure they would have looked right. These polished bezels always look black in photographs for some reaons, but I can assure you they are not, and the 'mottling' effect you can see is because the watches have protective film over them. Which, if nothing else, stops the finger marks you can see all over the polished centre links...

Okay let's find out what (if anything) the 'Council of Considered Opinion' have to say about these two:

Pink 6/10 - Caramel 6/10: "Nothing here to be very excited about. Just your basic dive watch with diamond markers for the female market. Nothing offensive but nothing we haven’t seen before."

Pink 8/10 - Caramel 6/10: "The pink one might be better than the caramel one I think."

Pink 3/10 - Caramel 4/10: "Poor Aquaracers! Diamonds and MOP in the same dial…"

Pink 7/10 - Caramel 6/10: "I like both of these much more than I expected to from the description. The caramel dial is very different, which is good but not sure that I'd wear it."

Pink 6/10 - Caramel 6/10: "OK if not a bit bland."

Pink 2/10 - Caramel 4./10: "Pink. Diamonds. Mother of pearl. No thanks. 2/10. Caramel is a nice shade, though (from the render). 4/10."

Pink 5.5/10 - Caramel 3.5/10: "The pink dial reminds me of candy floss but not sure if its going to look as good in the flesh. Having seen an actual photo of the caramel dial, it's not as nice as I first thought. I can see where they were going with this but I don't think it has worked."