ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Monaco Limited Edition, Carrera Extreme Sports Chronograph & Aquaracer 'Beaverbrooks Exclusive' Solargraph

 

Beaverbrooks / Meadowhall, Sheffield 6th September 2025

TAG Heuer Boutique / Meadowhall, Sheffield, 6th September 2025

Well my last 'On the Wrist' post was a bit negative wasn't it? So let's redress the balance slightly with this one, which also focuses on watches I tried out on the same day in Sheffield.

First of all, my wife and I visited Beaverbrooks where she was eager to see the new 'Beaverbrooks Exclusive' Aquaracer in... turquoise (or Tiffany blue, if you prefer) and since I've already made my reservations about the new 34mm Aquaracers clear (mainly the ugly-ass bezel!) I decided to keep my mouth well and truly shut and let her make up her own mind. 

Well she certainly liked the colour (although it wasn't quite as striking as she'd hoped), we know she likes diamond hour markers, the bezel didn't seem to be an issue for her and she loves the idea of a 15 year battery (and speaking as the person who ends up changing all her batteries for her, so do I!) but in the end she concluded that £2700 was a lot of money that could buy her something more exciting from Watchfinder. 

I have to say I agree. I couldn't bring myself to pay £2500 for the original carbon Solargraph either and I eventually picked it up (mint) for £1650 or something (current price, £3000!). There's no guarantee this one will ever reach WF of course, but if it does I imagine it won't be much over £2000. Besides, how many Aquaracers does a woman really need?

I realise that's a bit rich coming from me, but my wife isn't a brand whore like me so she has the whole world of Swiss watches to choose from... she already has Oris, Omega and Cartier in her collection and as much as pains me to admit it, all three of them are beautiful watches.

So ultimately it was a 'no' and I wandered off to the best TAG Heuer boutique in the UK, while she went and did whatever women do while men look at watches, hahaha.

I've already covered the F1 Solargraphs I looked at, but I also tried on a couple more pieces while I was there. First I noticed a couple of Carrera Extreme Sports models sitting in the cabinet that I'd never seen before (and indeed aren't on the TAG Heuer website, and which are proving very elusive to find anything out about!) and I tried one of those on.

Like so many watches this year, these aren't exactly 'new' models, but rather existing watches that have been put onto bracelets. So far I've only seen the red and the blue versions, but I heard through the grapevine that there is a limited edition Red/Blue dial model made for Shanghai (I'm trying to get a picture of that for you).

From a visual standpoint it completely changes the aesthetic of the watch, and I'm not sure if it's an improvement or not. On the one hand the red rubber strap really works with the red accents on the dial, but on the other hand, I like the idea that you could order the strap as an option and still have the bracelet in your watch box.... plus that red rubber strap is a helluva statement and maybe sometimes it would be nice to be able to tone it down a little bit.

The bracelet is made of titanium and while that's nothing new really, with these watches looking so chunky and hefty it's a real surprise when you pick them up and realise how light they actually are. If you've tried on the titanium Aquaracer Solargraph you've probably experienced something similar but the effect is definitely a lot more pronounced here.

Actually, I'm trying to think of where this bracelet has come from, but I can't so I'm assuming it's a brand new bracelet. Perhaps when the part number turns up all will become clear?

My final pick for this visit was the Monaco Calibre 11 'Heuer Stopwatch' Limited Edition released back at the Monaco GP. This was far and away the nicest thing I tried on this visit, despite me not really being a massive fan of the Calibre 11 movement, or more precisely the left hand crown...

This one though is certainly among the best of them, looking very stylish indeed and surely appealing to the Monaco purists with it's 'Heuer' branding and historical back story. I still think I would go for the Heuer 02 powered 'Dark Lord' over this one. but perhaps not by much. And I have to say my photograph doesn't really do it justice, it looks a lot better than that in real life.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the white Gulf Monaco released at the same time, apparently the Sheffield boutique had two of them but both sold very quickly, so I still haven't seen that one. Which is a shame as it's a contender for my WOTY vote, and I would like to see one before I make up my mind for sure.