Happy New Year to all my readers, and before we begin another year of the T.H.E. Blog I just wanted to take a second to thank you all for visiting my blog and keeping me going. Readership has doubled over the last couple of years (as far as I can tell from the page views) and I'm very happy that my enthusiasm for the brand has seemingly rubbed off on so many of you.
Now the past few years I've done a post called 'My Crazy Year of Watch Buying' or variations on that theme. But this year I actually bought a grand total of two watches; the green-dial Calibre 5 Aquaracer and the original carbon bezel Solargraph (plus my wife's short-lived two-tone Aquaracer or course!) so I don't really think it's worth doing that again this year.
However, as usual I have been keeping tabs on what I've worn over the year and now that my collection is down to a slightly less ridiculous size it gives me the opportunity to wear more watches more often. Or so you'd think.... as we'll see perhaps it hasn't worked out quite as hoped, and maybe there is a case to be made for disposing of a few more pieces?
Without further ado then let's get into it...
1 - Grand Carrera Calibre 17 Chronograph (CAV511A.BA0902) - 42 Wears
Last year the Grand Carrera took first place on the list (with 27 wears) despite only being bought in November - quite some achievement that! And once again we find the GC Chrono at the top of the list by quite some margin, even though it spent several weeks back at Watchfinder being serviced under warranty after it started losing chunks of time. Since it came back it's been keeping excellent time, as any 'chronometer' certified watch should. The thing about this watch is that once it goes on I just don't want to stop wearing it, so it usually racks up 4-6 days of wear at a time. It's hard for the other watches to compete with that...
2 - Grand Carrera Calibre 6 Watch (WAV511J.BA0900) - 25 Wears
Last year the Calibre 6 Grand Carrera racked up 26 wears, so just the slightest of dips this year, but still a clear second place for the blue dial Japanese Limited Edition. Oddly it felt like I'd worn this one less this year, so I'm guessing perhaps there was more action at the start of the year. It will be interesting to see if it can hang on to second place in 2024 as I definitely feel like I have cooled on it a touch.
3 - Aquaracer 'Chronotimer' Quartz Chronograph (CAF1010.BA0821) - 24 Wears
A bit of a surprise third place for the 'Chronotimer' perhaps? But I've always loved this watch and I feel like it's been very much a 'go-to' this year so I'm not totally surprised to see it giving the Calibre 6 Grand Carrera a run for its money. Right from when I bought this it was right on the edge of being too tight, and after a lot of time on the shelf in 2021 I switched it onto the rubber strap last year, which really helped up its performance. This continued into 2023 and I've just recently bought a new link for the bracelet so I think we can expect a strong showing in 2024 also.
4 - Aquaracer 'Green Dial' Calibre 5 Watch (WBP2115.BA0627) - 18 Wears
New for 2023 of course was the green dial Aquaracer and as is my ridiculous way I didn't wear it much for the first few months (save for on my trip to London to meet Jim Dollares in May). But this has changed in recent times and it's even been worn to work a few times - which is pretty unbelievable for me. Now that I've got used to the idea of wearing it without giving myself a mental breakdown over the bloody stupid polished clasp, I imagine a good number of wears are on the cards next year too.
5 - Formula 1 'Orange Dial' Quartz (WAZ101A.BA0842) - 15 Wears
From the moment I saw this watch I knew I had to buy it, but honestly the first couple of years of ownership were a big disappointment. The original nylon strap was absolutely horrible - looked killer, but so damned uncomfortable. The black perforated rubber I bought to replace it was much more comfortable, but it looked cheap and not at all premium. So eventually I decided to bite the bullet and ordered the bracelet. What a difference! I've only just got hold of it as the bracelet was a Christmas present from my wife, but I fully expect to be wearing this a lot more in future.
6 - 4000 Series 'White Dial' Quartz Watch (WF1112.BA0511) - 14 Wears
Another surprisingly strong performance you might think, given that this isn't one of my 'statement' pieces. But I've always loved this one with it's clean white dial and the thing that made a real difference this year was the fact that I got a brand new bracelet for it. When I bought it it came on a very stretched bracelet that I thought could be swapped with the one on my crappy grey WF1111 (NOPE!) so instead I bought two brightly coloured original TAG Heuer sharkskin straps for it. They were kinda cool, in a tacky '90s' kinda way, but ultimately I craved a return to the bracelet and now that I have one I couldn't be happier with it.
7 - Link Searacer Quartz Regatta Chronograph (CT1113.BA0550) - 13 Wears
Another watch that has languished on the sidelines for far too long due to a too-tight bracelet and another one that I finally got round to ordering a spare link for this year. Having finally done that I found myself reaching for this one more often than it probably merits, indeed I could well imagine this one slipping back to single digits quite easily in 2024. It's one that I like, but it's not one that I really 'love' and as such I have thought about selling it several times, but the thing is that it is my only Link. I just wish they made half links though because now it is slightly too big and there's no micro adjustment on the bracelet.
8 - 2000 Exclusive Quartz Dial (WN1112.BA0332) - 12 Wears
This one always does better than you'd think, and I believe a lot of that is down to the fact that it's a watch I don't have to 'worry' about. This one was an absolute bargain when I bought it from eBay and since the polished parts of the bezel were already scratched I really can put it on and forget about it. It has a lovely blue dial, but admittedly the aesthetics are a little divisive. Some days I love it, sometimes I actually find it a bit ugly... but still it's one of only 8 watches that averaged one outing a month in 2023.
9 - SLR Calibre S Laptimer Quartz Chronograph (CAG7010.FT6015) - 11 Wears
I'm surprised this one didn't rank higher on the list because I feel like I've worn it more. This could be partly be because I didn't switch it on to the rubber strap until about March and the bracelet was absolutely unwearable. Sure it 'looks' cool as all hell, but there is no micro adjustment and the 'half' links are about three inches long! All said, there is zero hope of a good fit unless your wrist just happens to be the right size. Once I put the rubber strap on though the watch was transformed. It's still not a very comfortable watch to wear though, the silly left hand crown digs into your wrist at every opportunity and the right one gets the odd dig in too, but it's worth a little pain to wear something this cool. Because of this though this one only gets worn one day at a time, hence the lower than expected total.
=10 - Aquaracer Calibre S Quartz Chronograph - 10 Wears
A sightly weak year for the yellow dial Calibre S Aquaracer after two very strong years, which I do find surprising given that until very recently this was my favourite Aquaracer. Perhaps putting it back on the bracelet wasn't the great move I thought it was? I will probably switch it back onto the rubber once the weather gets warmer anyway and we'll see what happens from there, but I'm sure this one will still get a goodly amount of use anyway.
=10 - Aquaracer Quartz Watch (WAJ1111.BA0870) - 10 Wears
A pretty stable performer this one, albeit in a way the fact that this only gets about ten wears a year just brings home to me that I still have way too many watches - because I really like this one. Annoyingly I can't get the back off this myself so when the battery needs replacing I will have to send it back to be done properly. It must be getting close too since I had this done pre-pandemic; I'd like to think it hadn't cost me £2 in battery every time I wore it... but that's where we're probably heading!
=10 - Aquagraph Calibre 60 Chronograph - 10 Wears
The mighty Aquagraph... my second ever TAG Heuer, was bought in 2014 from Bicester Village and has only very recently been put back on its bracelet after many years on the hinged TAG Heuer rubber strap. The strap made it much more wearable, but it never looked as good so it was really nice to get it back on the bracelet even though it weighs in at a wrist-snapping 216g in that configuration! I kinda got used to wearing this day to day, even wearing it to work... but it remains to be seen how it performs on the bracelet, which again has no micro adjustment.
* Indicates watches which have been sold during 2023
I'm not going to go through every watch obviously, but there are a few points worth noting from the chart above.
The Solargraph is only a very recent purchase, so six wears is more than respectable and extrapolated over a year would easily put it in the top three. No prizes for guessing what my new favourite Aquaracer is...
Despite the limited number of wears the Carrera Heuer 01 Skeleton is still my No1 favourite watch, but it really is one I only wear when I go out so it's never going to make big numbers.
Same goes for the titanium Carrera and the WAY208C really, though I'm surprised I haven't worn the Aquaracer more than three times. Again it screams that I still have way too many watches... and way too many 'going out' watches for someone who doesn't 'go out' that often.
The plum Kirium has picked up because until recently it was too tight and very uncomfortable, but a couple of months ago I got a new link and had it fitted and since then I've made a conscious effort to wear it. On the other hand my very first TAG Heuer the F1 Kirium (which sits right at the bottom of the table) is still too tight*... I have a link, I'm just trying to psych myself up to fit it, or maybe I will just take it somewhere and get someone to do it for me as I seem to have lost the knack lately!
*Weirdly all three Kiriums have the the same number of links in the bracelet, so I don't understand why the F1 Kirium feels tighter. I could understand that the rather beat up blue one's bracelet has more play in it but the plum dial one is just as minty as the F1. Very strange.
It's kind of frustrating reading this list to be honest, because I think to myself 'why don't I wear this or that watch more often?' Well obviously because there's a finite number of opportunities per year and yes because I simply have too many watches. In an ideal world I would sit down and decide to sell at least ten, but every time I think about doing that I come up with maybe two I might be prepared to let go...
Logically the least worn should go, but ironically the least worn are often my favourites. The sensible thing to do would be to force myself to wear almost everything day to day and only keep say the Heuer 01 as the 'best' watch. But knowing me I will struggle with that and no doubt this time next year I will be saying all the same things...
Still I guess I should be pleased that I have managed to shift nine this year... but now it's getting harder to let them go. But yeah, I really need to trim the fat again next year, because there's bound to be something shiny and new I want to buy then too!
Top three makes for a very nice three piece watch collection
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