PRICE LIST: TAG Heuer Price List 2018/2019

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer x Hodinkee Carrera 'Seafarer' Calibre TH20-00 Limited Edition Chronograph

TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield, 30th November 2024 

I'll be completely honest... when the Hodinkee Seafarer was announced I didn't want to like it. 'Here we go,' I thought, another bloody vintage-inspired Carrera that's guaranteed to find favour with the Council of Considered Opinion... and a dead cert for the Watch of the Year! 

And yet, to my immense surprise, it turned out not to be as popular with the Council as I presumed it would and as we all now know the Seafarer ultimately lost out to the 'Time & Tide' Limited Edition Aquaracer. Praise be; finally a WOTY that wasn't a Carrera... and a solar quartz at that!

I know. As the organiser I really should be more 'neutral' shouldn't I? And I can't pretend I wasn't happy when the Time & Tide Aquaracer took the crown, but clearly my influence has little to no effect, you only have to look at the previous years' results to see that!

But Rob, you might say, how could you not get behind this wonderful release, harking back to the glory days of Heuer (and Abercrombie & Fitch, of course) and peddled furiously by everyone's favourite fashion magazine Hodinkee? 

Well, it wasn't that I harboured a particular grudge against the Seafarer (although the patronage of Hodinkee is the kiss of death for me), I just didn't want yet another 'vintage inspired' WOTY on the books. Of course back in November the WOTY voting was yet to get underway, so as I slid the watch onto my wrist it was still very much 'the enemy'... and with that in mind it's surprising that I liked it more than I thought I would. 

You see, it is possible to have an opinion, yet still remain open minded enough to appreciate watches that are not particularly 'your thing'. 

Sometimes...

Did it change my mind completely? No, it's still a vintage inspired Heuer after all and that's just not my cup of tea. But the 42mm case certainly helped and the 'Tide' button that looks stupidly large in photos doesn't seem quite so big (or as intrusive as feared) in person. The subdial surrounds are way too blingy though, a strange choice for a 'heritage inspired' piece one might think and the subdials themselves are surprisingly loud and obnoxious.

You know I can't help but think that we've reached the point now where, having used up a lot of the classic Heuers as inspiration, we're now reaching for more obscure models that look good on paper and that people might initially get excited by, but when it comes down to it won't automatically find an endless queue of buyers. True, the watch market has cooled, we know that; but back in 2021 a heritage inspired Hodinkee Carrera would sell out in a matter of days, whereas this one is still freely available several months after its release. Or maybe 968 pieces is just more then the market can take right now?

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 6000 Series Copper Dial Chronometer by Birth Year Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Diamond Dial Carreras

And so we come to the final four watches that were released at the '2025 LVMH Watch Week'. We've already looked at the five new Formula 1 Calibre 16 chronographs, the latest iterations of the Porsche Chronosprint glassbox and most recently the purple glass box chronograph and tourbillon, so now it's the turn of these four, umm... Carreras.

Now, some time ago I gave the illustrious 'Council' the choice to opt 'in' or 'out' of voting on women's watches, because I noticed that some members routinely gave everything a four (unless it was truly heinous) and I just thought it was better to give them the option to 'ignore' them rather than drag the scores down because they just weren't interested.

But the problem is you see, with women's watches getting bigger, and men's watches getting smaller, it's getting harder and harder to define what is a man's watch and what is a woman's watch. In the past it was clear; 27mm with diamonds and a mother of pearl dial, clearly for ladies... 43mm with a rubber strap that looks like a tyre tread; clearly for men. Simples!

SPOTLIGHT ON: GrandPrixWatches.com

 

I was recently contacted by Daniel from GrandPrixWatches.com about doing an interview for his website, which I was more than happy to do. Daniel has combined his passions to create GrandPrixWatches.com which he's billing as a 'Historical Resource for Formula 1 and Moto GP Watches'. I know some of you watch enthusiasts out there love the connection to F1 (in particular) so I'm sure you will find some interesting reading there.. there's certainly a lot of brands that I've never heard of before! 

Click the image at the top of the page to visit GRANDPRIXWATCHES.COM 

Or click the link below to read my interview.

https://www.grandprixwatches.com/2025/02/tag-heuer-enthusiast-interview-with-rob-aqua-g/

HISTORY: TAG Heuer Airline

Quite a short 'History' post for the Heuer/TAG Heuer Airline as there are only six watches in total. The Airline first appears in the 1985 (and penultimate) Heuer catalogue, with four models displayed. These appear again in the 1985-1986 catalogue and finally all six appear in the 1987-1988 catalogue (with TAG Heuer branded dials). 

I always liked the look of these, especially the cool black and gold version but once I realised that they were only available in mid-size (35mm) I reluctantly accepted that I was never going to own one. One thing I love about these is the wacky printed bracelets with the major cities and the time difference, I mean... talk about avant garde! 

Confusingly, only two of the original four Heuer models have 'GMT' bezels even though they all have GMT hands. So in the 1987-1988 catalogue TAG Heuer introduce 'GMT' versions of the watches that didn't have them before. These are then given a suffix 'GMT' which suggests all the others aren't... even though they are. 

All models are quartz powered.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Limited Edition by Monochrome Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Purple Dial' Glassbox & Tourbillon Chronographs

As the owner of a beautiful 'plum-wine-purpley/red-never-quite-sure-what-to-call-it' Kirium I am very open to unusual dial colours like these, and honestly this is the first time I've looked at one of these 39mm glassbox Carreras and not dismissed it as irrelevant. In fact, I think I actually quite like this one...!

Believe me, no one is more surprised than me, but there's something about the elegant purple dial and the domed crystal; it just looks like it was meant to be. Moser-ish even. Sure it looks kinda 'feminine', but not so much that I wouldn't want to wear it. I mean, I wouldn't want to wear it because these 39mm Carreras are too small for my wrist, but for the first time I'm looking at this and actually thinking it would be cool if they made it in a bigger size.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 300M by Bruce Williams

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer x Porsche Carrera Chronosprint Rallye

 

Before I start this post, I just want to apologize in advance to anyone who gets irritated by my use of the words Rally and Rallye... I tried to clarify which means what but it's very confusing. I figured maybe it's 'Rally Straps' but then I found loads of perforated straps called 'Rallye Straps'. Google AI suggests 'Rallye' indicates a motor race rather than a political 'Rally', but then elsewhere it's suggested that 'Rallye' is the plural of 'Rally' or indeed it might just be the French way of spelling 'Rally' (which obviously makes it sound much more luxurious). Anyway, sorry 'bout that...!

Believe it or not, someone on the THF Forum has already backed the Porsche Chronosprint Rallye for the '2025 COCO Watch of the Year'! Quite a statement when we're barely a third of the way through February... but let us not forget that the very first release of 2023 was the Carrera 60th Anniversary Panda, which absolutely annihilated the competition on its way to securing the crown.

But then the 'Panda' was always going to be a sure fire winner, which is precisely why it was the last of the old style 'glassbox' Carreras... and honestly why it was strange that it was one of the first new style 'glassbox' Carreras. After all, the watch industry very much operates on a policy of 'never quite give the people what they want because we might be able to sell them something else in the meantime'. 

Once you give them what they want, the theory goes, the customer is satisfied and will stop buying. Well, I don't know about that... most watch collectors will tend to find something 'else' they want regardless, but I suppose the principle is sound. 

Anyhoo... following on from my 'Top 10 TAG Heuer x Porsche' watch post a few weeks back, here we have two more to add to the collection... if they are in contention for the WOTY come December I wonder which one will come out on top, or will they split the vote allowing something else to sneak past like some sort of horological Kimi Raikkonnen. 🤣

PRICE LIST: TAG Heuer Price List 2019-2020

 

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer 2000 Series 244.006 Quartz Watch

It's funny, I don't really look at eBay very often these days, but every now and then I click on one of those emails they send you heralding '327 new TAG Heuers' and occasionally it throws up something interesting. Of course, every third listing is suspicious as all hell, but now that eBay are utilising the wonderful and totally infallible 'AI' to check listings I guess we can all sleep safe in our beds.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  

Sorry, I can't help it. Ebay is a complete joke and I would love to know exactly how 'AI' is checking the authenticity of listings? How is it programmed to do that? I mean, it's probably no more completely useless than a real person who doesn't know their arse from their elbow - but I guess they can now point to using 'AI' and everyone will be reassured. 

Jesus Christ. I'm glad my eBay days are largely behind me. But anyway...

VIDEO: How to Set the Time on a TAG Heuer F1 Kirium by OBR Horology

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Calibre 16 Chronographs

 

Over the last few years it has become painfully obvious that TAG Heuer's 'Formula 1' range was starting to get a little tired. The current WAZ/CAZ case was introduced way back in 2015, and while there have been numerous updates and minor refreshes it really was starting to feel like it needed a proper overhaul. Last year's collaboration with the American clothing brand 'Kith' caused a whole lot of interest in the 'classic' Formula 1 and it feels like TAG Heuer have jumped at the opportunity to update with a new 'classic' 38mm three handed Solargraph expected at April's Watches & Wonders alongside this line up of Calibre 16 chronographs which was revealed about ten days ago.

While I did praise last year's Calibre 16 F1 chronographs as nice looking watches, the truth is they were incredibly safe and simply didn't have that certain something 'extra' to make them a 'must-buy' rather than another 'nice' watch in a sea of 'nice' watches. Thankfully it seems TAG Heuer have taken the plunge and produced something genuinely new here, which is absolutely to be applauded. After all the watch world is absolutely drowning in 'heritage' this and 'vintage' that and the Formula 1 was never supposed to be anything but fresh and forward looking. 

Yes, I know... the irony!