You know, I kinda thought my days of buying cheap, quartz powered eBay bargains were over, especially since I'd gone to the trouble of cleansing my collection in order to raise to funds to buy bigger and better things. But, sometimes you just want to buy something new, and after the massive disappointment of the 'grey' dial Link Calibre S I turned to eBay for a quick fix of silver dial perfection.
Y'see, a few weeks back I caught sight of (what I'm 99% sure was) a WK1112 in the window of my local H&T and it looked jolly nice. I don't really remember the finer details, but I think it was one of the later ones with the polished '12' rather than the lumed '12', but mostly I remember the silver dial sparkling in the sunlight. In fact my first port of call was the H&T website, but the watch in question had been sold, and so I turned to eBay.
Now as we all know, Ebay buying is fraught with problems, especially if you want something newer and especially if it costs less than £1500. That price point is the threshold where eBay's authenticity service kicks in. Now whether you trust it or not is another matter, but the fact that it exists at all is enough to deter some fakers and it's funny how many £3000+ watches you can buy on eBay for under £1500.... but I wasn't anticipating spending anything like that and since older fake 2000s are pretty terrible I wasn't too worried.
Polished '12' dial version of the WK1112
I searched the site for WK1112s and came up with a few. I was torn between the older version and the newer version because I used to own a black dial WK1110 with the older dial and I really loved it. I've also owned a blue 2000 with the older dial and loved that too (why on Earth I sold that I do not know) and by contrast the only time I bought one of the 2000s with the newer dial (another WK1110) I sent it back: principally because the crown had zero thread left, but also because I didn't really like it as much with the polished '12'.
In the end, and guided by price (it must be said) I opted for the older style dial, I really don't know why but the polished '12' dial versions are all so much dearer. Okay they might be a bit newer but Watchfinder were trying to sell one for £1000, which is ludicrous (or so I thought; since I originally wrote this they now have the lume '12' version of the WK1112 up for £1335.. I mean it's a nice little watch, but it ain't all that!) 🤣
There were several to choose from (including many from Japan, which complicates things as it exposes you to import duties) including one that seemed incredibly cheap at £275. Surprisingly, even though the price was low, the seller was inviting offers. So I made an offer of £250 and waited, after all, it wasn't like I wasn't going to be able to find another one (although another one under £300 would be a tall order).
Of course the seller didn't respond straight away, which was annoying as now I wanted the watch, even at the full asking price... so I debated just buying it, but managed to hold off overnight. The next morning I fully expected to get an email telling me the offer was accepted, but no, they made me wait deep into the afternoon before taking my money.
Superb photo from the eBay listing. 🤣
But still, a lovely watch for £250 - can't moan about that. In fact it's one of the cheapest watches I've ever bought. I just hoped the watch wasn't too beaten up because the listing pictures were terrible (probably one of the reasons it was going so cheap). I bought the watch on a Thursday and I kind of hoped it would arrive on Saturday, but of course it didn't come until Monday or Tuesday.
When the watch arrived it came with a round plastic TAG Heuer box that I've usually only seen with Formula 1's. I'm not sure if this is the box it came with but I know my wife's blue 2000 came with a square, contoured box that was made of some strange rubbery plastic that eventually turned sticky so maybe this was something the owner got as a replacement? The box was in reasonable condition albeit there was clearly originally a protective film over the TAG Heuer logo that had worn away and left a sticky residue, but I managed to clean it off and it came up pretty well with only some slight blooming to the plastic.
The watch itself looked pretty tidy, but I still decided to take the bracelet off, polish the centre links and re-brush the sides to get rid of the worst of the scratches. It was a very light refinish, just enough to make the centre links stand out like they were supposed to without grinding away at the surface. And after I soaked it with foaming spray to clean out all the nooks and crannies and rinsed and dried it, I reattached it.
But while it was off I took the opportunity to try the rubber strap from my 2000 Multigraph. Getting the bracelet off was a bit harder than expected as one of the spring bars was solid at one end, but not too bad and luckily I still had the fresh spring bars in the packet where I keep the rubber strap. I think it looks okay, but I didn't really think twice about putting it back on the bracelet.
The one thing I will say about the watch is that I was just slightly disappointed that it isn't as 'silvery' as I was expecting based off what I saw in the pawn shop window, but of course my watch is the older version and I assume they must have updated the dial as well as the lumed '12'. Mine is more of a shiny 'grey' than a proper silver and in some lights it almost gives off a slight beige hue (which I'm not keen on) but despite that over the days since I received it I wore it every day at some point and I found it really grew on me.
Initially I bought this with one eye on flipping it if I decided I didn't want it, because after all I wasn't sure this cheap quartz watch was going to cut it alongside the watches that now inhabit my watch box. But I have to say there's something rather refreshing about wearing a watch and not having to worry about it all the time. I mean, I'm not using this as a 'beater', but given it only took me about a week to break my GC Caliper (service cost about £700!) I do appreciate a nice looking watch that doesn't cost a couple of month's salary.
As such, I decided to take it with me on holiday to Norway in April. I needed something easy to wear, not so expensive that I would be worried about it and also suitable to wear to a gig. And so the WK1112 was with me when I visited Holmenkollen Chapel, Neseblod Records, Vigeland Park, Ekebergsparken, the fascinating National Museum... and also on my wrist while I watched Zeromancer play their first gig for seven years at the Vulkan Arena in their home town of Oslo (that was a busy four days and I highly recommend a trip to Norway if you get a chance to go).
So yeah, it seems the answer to the question is very much 'yes', you can go back to enjoying cheaper pieces... and honestly I'm genuinely surprised how much I've enjoyed wearing this even though the dial isn't all that legible (certainly nothing like as clear as either the black or blue dials I've owned previously). And yeah, when I put it next to my other watches it doesn't really stack up; it's kinda small, kinda plain and long term the appeal may wear off. But if it does I don't feel like I'm going to have any problem recouping my investment.
But that doesn't mean I'm going to go on an affordable watch buying frenzy again, my goal is still to reduce my collection dramatically and I'm seriously considering putting my titanium Carrera CV2A80 up for sale soon. It's barely been worn and I know I'm going to lose a ton of money on it, but how long do you keep something that you know isn't for you? I like to look at it, I just don't really enjoy wearing it that much. So I think it has to go... if it hasn't already.
