BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Two-Tone' Calibre 5 Watch by Jim Dollares

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Today we are joined by Sweden's number one Aquaracer enthusiast - Jim Dollares; a man who now counts two Aquaracers in his allegedly 'three-piece' watch collection... alongside his 160th Anniversary Carrera, his original Formula 1 Red Bull quartz, his Breitling Colt and several other less exotic pieces. But never mind all that, today Jim's here to tell you about his latest (and greatest?) purchase, the long anticipated WBD2120.

JIM: I've always had a soft spot for yellow gold two-tone watches with a blue dial and my first proper watch love was the TAG Heuer Aquaracer. It is no wonder why the WBD2120 turned into an obsession of mine after its release in 2020. For various reasons, mainly money, it took approximately four years for it to finally find a home in my three piece watch collection.

"It looks so douchebaggy. In a good way!"

Yes, this was what I told the sales person in London last year, when I was able to try it on. Afterwards I regretted deeply that I hadn't purchased it then and there but budget wise I had not calculated to spend that amount at that point. Plus, a couple of months prior I had just bought another Aquaracer, the Ice Diver (WBP201C).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Monaco Heuer 02 by Average Joe Watch Reviews

 

BUYING EXPERIENCE: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Quartz Ladies Watch

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Way back in 2021 my wife and I visited the TAG Heuer outlet at Bicester Village and she tried on a WAY1355 Aquaracer. She absolutely loved it, but she had some reservations about the highly polished rose gold bezel and how resilient it might be. In addition, at that time the watch was on sale for about £2100, which was probably reduced from about a list price of about £3000/3200 - undoubtedly a very decent discount, but still a lot of money to spend on a diamondless quartz piece unless you're absolutely besotted. 

Fast forward three years and watch prices have gone crazy (although for how much longer I wonder?), TAG Heuer's website now shows this watch at £4350, though it is out of stock and, I presume, discontinued. However, the price of the watch at Bicester Village has actually dropped significantly to a frankly incredible £1300, which means it's basically being sold at 70% off the current website price. Some deals are truly too good to miss out on, and once I noticed this and I sent it to my wife to look at we quickly arranged a Saturday morning trip to the Bicester store.

VIDEO: Interview with Julien Tornare at Watches & Wonders 2024 by Watch Advisor

 

ON THE WRIST: KITH Heuer Formula 1 Re-Issue Quartz Watch

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TAG Heuer Outlet / Bicester Village, 11th May 2024

Now don't get excited... clearly they didn't have KITH Heuer Formula 1s for sale at the Bicester Village outlet store, but one of the staff there was wearing one and so luckily I managed to get a quick look at it. Unfortunately I couldn't actually try it on as it had been sized to fit the owner and it wouldn't go over my hand, but even so, it was great to actually see one in person and I feel like I can now make a much more informed judgement on the quality, etc.

To be honest, this particular model wasn't my favourite of the ten pieces released, but even so I can see that it's well made and I do think the 'eggshell' dial works even if it is 'pretending' to be a lume dial. The problem presumably is that back in the day these were tritium dials and of course they can't use tritium anymore. Could they have achieved the same effect with a creamy Superluminova? I guess, but then it would have cost more and the pricing structure would have been even more complicated than it already was, so maybe this was the best solution - even if it was a compromise.

VIDEO: KITH Heuer Formula One Box Set by Time & Tide

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 'ThreeC' Limited Edition

 

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Okay... hands up anyone who didn't immediately think 'Zenith Daytona' the second they clapped eyes on this one for the first time. Anyone? Didn't think so... but is that such a bad thing? The Zenith Chronomaster Sport is a fine looking watch after all and offers a very attractive (cheaper) alternative to the overpriced and under-sized Rolex Daytona. Perhaps we could say the same about this one?

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Skipper' Calibre TH20-06 Chronograph by Brent Miller Time

FEATURE: Are TAG Heuer About to Drop a New 'Senna' S/EL?

 

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Earlier this year Revolution Watches released a video interview with new TAG Heuer CEO Julien Tornare in which when asked about the 'Senna watch' he replied 'Yes, we're going to take care of that'. What, exactly, do we think was meant by that? 

Until recently I would have said any notion that TAG Heuer might be about to resurrect the S/EL was 'pie in the sky' at best, but following the pretty faithful re-release of the classic Formula 1... well why not? After all, the Link is a dead watch walking at this point, so maybe TAG Heuer does what the watch industry always does these days - looks backwards and releases a 'new' S/EL? Well maybe not, maybe that's pushing the idea a little far... surely it must be. But still the question remains, what was Julien alluding to when he made that comment?

VIDEO: TAG Heuer x Kith Formula 1 - Retro & Hot by Adrian Barker

 

ON THE WRIST: Heuer Autavia 'Viceroy' Heuer 02 Chronograph

 

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TAG Heuer Outlet / Bicester Village, 11th May 2024

The Heuer 02 Autavia was a funny old thing. Launched in 2017, the watch was warmly received but at 42mm it was probably a little large for the Heuer types it was aimed at, and it was also a bit on the thick side. Despite that the watch seemed to have a lot of fans and TAG Heuer released several variations in quick succession including the UAE L/E, the Watches of Switzerland L/E, the Orange Boy L/E and this particular one, the 'Viceroy' Edition.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Twin Time by The Watch Village

 

FEATURE: I Guess We Have 'Kithsteria' to Blame For This?

 

One of the COCO members drew my attention to this absolute garbage on eBay a couple of days ago. I can't quite believe it, but someone actually bought this for £955. It was listed as NOS, which is an absolute joke. There's damage to the bezel, there appears to be a chip in the glass above the date and another scuff on the left hand side over the minute hand. 

There's also a nice juicy scratch on the backplate and that strap... what the hell is that strap??? Some cheap garbage aftermarket strap with a scratched up buckle.

Jesus. They could have had my mint all black Formula 1 for half that money. 

FEATURE: My Top Ten Aquaracers by Abrod520

Today we are continuing our series dedicated to celebrating the wonderful TAG Heuer Aquaracer, and this time we have another COCO Council member (Abrod520/Adam) who has stepped up to the plate to declare his Top 10 Aquaracers. I was surprised to see that Adam didn't include the 'Tribute to 844' which I remembered him buying, but when I checked with him to see if he'd forgotten about it he said that he had sold it as the initial attraction wore off. Well, you know, it happens...

Here then is Adam's Top 10, sans the 'Tribute to 844'...

VIDEO: KITH Heuer Formula 1 is a Joke by Just One More Watch

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: KITH Heuer Formula 1 Quartz Re-Edition Watches

 

It's long been rumoured that TAG Heuer were going to release some kind of 'classic' Formula 1 piece this year and fair play to them they did an amazing job of keeping it under wraps until just a few days before release when it emerged that the new watch was going to be a collaboration with Ronnie Fieg's 'Kith' brand. Like most people on this side of the pond (I suspect), I'd never heard of them. But then as a 54 year old man living in the UK, who thinks £50 for a shirt is more than enough, I'm hardly their target customer!

In the wider watch community though the penny dropped and Hodinkee's recent 'Talking Watches' interview with Ronne Fieg was exposed as the thirty minute advertisment it surely was... and when you add in that LVMH has a stake in Hodinkee and Frederic Arnault and Ronnie are reportedly buddies, well... you can see exactly how all this came about; something that wasn't lost on the commentors on Hodinkee's Instagram post about the new watches incidentally.

Because of course this wasn't a 'watch' at all, but a series of ten watches inspired by (to varying degrees) the original Formula 1 watches which were produced between 1986 and 1996.

VIDEO: KITH Heuer Formula 1 Re-Issues by Escapement24

 

FEATURE: TAG Heuer at Watches & Wonder 2024 (with Jim Dollares)

 

Greetings dear readers and welcome to our annual round up of Watches & Wonders. As ever I have our delightful Swedish contributor Jim Dollares with me and well, I think it might be an understatement to say he's fired up and ready to talk...

ROB: Hi Jimbo, how's it going on this beautiful Monday morning?

JIM: Hi Rob, thanks for reaching out. Let me start out by saying that I have now calmed down a bit after my utter rage I felt seeing the very weak line up presented by TAG Heuer this year. Did I say weak? Yes you heard me!

ROB: Well, yes I must admit I wasn't exactly blown away by this year's W&W offerings, or indeed much of anything that's come out this year... in fact at this point in time I'm struggling to think what I can use my WOTY vote on. I mean, there's still a long way to go and I'm sure there's dozens of new watches due for release before we get to that point. But even so, it's been a fairly lacklustre start to Mr Tornare's reign (although you can hardly blame him as he's only been in the job for five minutes).

Okay, so where do you wanna start? How about the new Panda glassbox?

JIM: The panda glassbox in theory could have been something really nice. I mean, we saw with the 60th anniversary of the Carrera how exceptionally wonderful a perfectly executed glassbox panda can be. What TAG Heuer released this year though, is like the mentally challenged cousin of the CBK221H.

ROB: Yes, yet again everyone seems to love this latest glassbox and yet again I feel like there's something wrong with me because I honestly think it's pretty odd looking. I really don't understand where all this positivity comes from; you know, all these You Tube watch gurus making videos with titles like 'TAG is back' and 'TAG is smashing it out of the park with these new glassboxes'. And I mean I say everybody, but compare the COCO score for this new version with the 60th Anniversary - 6/10 V 8.7/10, that shows me that at least the COCO has it's collective head screwed on right!

VIDEO: The Most Iconic TAG Heuer Watch of All Time by Kevin O'Leary

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Calibre 16 Chronographs

 

After the hullabuloo (and disappointment, frankly) of Watches & Wonders 2024, it was refreshing to see TAG Heuer sneak out a couple of nice looking Calibre 16 Formula 1 chronographs just after the show ended. I don't really know why they weren't shown at W&W, but for me these are the best things TAG Heuer have released so far this year!

Luckily, I actually managed to try both the blue and green models on in the Regent Street branch of Watches of Switzerland so this post will serve as both a 'First Impressions' and an 'On the Wrist'. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer x Kith Ruins F1 Re-Issue by Britt Pierce

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Monaco Calibre TH81-00 'Rattrapante' Split Seconds Chronograph

 

Okay, hands up who else spat out their coffee when they read that the latest Monaco from TAG Heuer had a price tag of from* £121,000? I mean, we knew something was coming based off last year's 'Only Watch' Monaco Rattrapante so it wasn't exactly a 'surprise' (especially as TAG Heuer had been dropping hints left, right and centre), but I don't think anyone was really prepared for the jaw-dropping price tag the brand attached to this new model... even when you take into account the £3000 premium TAG are already charging for their current skeletonised Monacos over the solid dial variants.

*Depending on the level of customisation required, in case you were wondering....

I mean, had I been asked to guess the price I might have plucked £25,000-30,000 out of the air (especially since before this I wasn't terribly au fait with what the going rate for a rattrapante was), but I would never in my wildest estimates have gone over £100,000! And I wasn't alone, both 'A Blog to Watch' and (ex Watchfinder 'hands' guy) Andrew Morgan absolutely ridiculed the brand in their 'Watches & Wonders' YouTube round ups (though with their combined knowledge and industry savvy they should perhaps have been a little more 'informed'). 

But initially I too did not get it, especially when rattrapante chronographs are readily available from other brands such as Breitling at under £10,000 and from 'better' brands like IWC for not that much more. So there has to be more to it, doesn't there. It can't simply be that TAG Heuer are applying a Monaco premium the likes of which we've never seen before just because? 

Well yes, of course there is...