TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield July 2024
While clearly there's little genuine 'excitement' to be had from trying on an entry level quartz Formula 1 chronograph at this point, I will admit that this is, while by no means a contender for my hard earned sponds, a marked improvement over the red, yellow and green models released way back in 2022. This one just has a little more... class about it. The blue manages to be bright enough without screaming its head off at you like a 1999 Subura Impreza (surely a gold bezel and pushers/crown would work wonderfully here though?), and as such it successfully treads the fine line between fun and, well gaudy.
The previous models didn't so much tip-toe up to that line as run screaming across it while dressed head to toe in Gucci and clutching a diamond encrusted cane, but yet they still managed to find favour with the fantastically unpredictable Charlie/Imagwai (you remember his curious Top 10 Aquaracers a little while back); to this day I cannot fathom how this slight fellow who counts a tasteful blue Rolex OP and until recently an original Carrera re-issue in his collection could lust after something as outrageously gauche as the 43mm green rubber clad Formula 1. But there we are.... there's nowt so strange as folks as my old dad used to say!
Thankfully the new blue dial version manages to reign it in and look good on both the rubber and the bracelet (actually, for me the blue is the only one that looks good on the bracelet, all the others looked much better on the colour coded rubber straps), and does a reasonable job of making you forget just how old this basic F1 design actually is. Because the watch this is based on (the CAZ1010) first appeared in the 2016-2017 catalogue... okay seven years isn't that long but good luck finding much else from that catalogue still on sale today.
But then does TAG Heuer really need to keep refreshing their 'entry level' offerings? After all, people tend to buy one and move on, I doubt many people are sitting at home grumbling about how they really ought to bring out a new version. But even so, surely it can't be too long before this design is replaced.
At least they updated the BA0842 bracelet, and having owned one for a while (fitted to my orange dial WAZ101A - because the strap provided with that is just plain nasty) I have to say it is perfectly nice. Again it's nothing tremendously exciting, but it's comfortable and the clasp works well. I actually think this watch looks best on the bracelet, I think it's because the (relative) sobriety of the blue/black dial makes this one feel more grown up than its predecessors and so it requires a more mature solution. At £1850, the bracelet costs an extra £100, which for those starting out in the hobby might feel like a stretch, but I'd say it's worth the push. If only because at some point you'll probably want to get the bracelet anyway...
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