THIRD QUARTER ROUND UP: New Pieces (Aug/Sep)

As I included July in the second quarter round up, we just have watches released in August and September to look at here, but there's still plenty of new pieces on offer. In fact I've just noticed they've added another new piece, or rather an existing piece on a new strap, but it's not terribly exciting so I'll save myself some aggravation and post that one next time.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Superdiver by Hour Striker

 

ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraphs and 42mm Carrera Sports

It's been a little while since I've visited a TAG Heuer boutique, so I was expecting to see lots of new and exciting things... well, maybe that was a little optimistic (what with so many new things being limited editions), but I did see the new Formula 1 Solargraph for the Dutch GP, which looked quite cool. I also saw the new 'Watches of Switzerland exclusive' 41mm Carrera with the metallic Tiffanyish dial. 

That's a bit of a mystery that one, the UK website claims it is a limited edition of 250, but the US site makes no such claim. Talking to other people about this I've heard it's not limited by number but by production so who knows. It looked okay, but a bit too shiny for my liking. Still I'm pleased that they are starting to make this kind of dial in more wearable sizes (not just 36mm).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraph by Time & Tide

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraphs

As the more observant of you might have noticed when you perused the June 2026 price list I posted a week or so ago, TAG Heuer have deleted from the catalogue a bunch of Aquaracer Solargraphs (most notably the original titanium version, but NOT yet the super cool black DLC / carbon bezel one). But fear not, TAG Heuer isn't giving up on the Aquaracer Solargraph, it's just time for a refresh. And by refresh, I mean lets slap a weird new bezel on it that makes it look like a Breitling... or something.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraph by Brent Miller Time

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 300 Professional by Casual Watch Reviews

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Superdiver

 

Back in 2022 TAG Heuer relaunched their hard-core dive watch in the guise of the 'Superdiver', a 45mm Aquaracer with a grade 5 titanium case, 1000M of water resistance, an integrated helium escape valve and a fancy crown mechanism. On top of all that it came complete with a Kenissi manufactured (sort of) in-house movement (the TH30-00, which is carried over into these models incidentally).

It looked pretty cool, but at 45mm it was absolutely HUGE on the wrist and also very expensive (only those short lived solid gold Aquaracers cost more IIRC) both of which negatively impacted its sales potential. First they tried giving away an orange rubber strap to stimulate interest and then it started falling in price (something practically unheard of in the Swiss watch world), but seemingly to no avail, and after a few short years in the catalogue it was sent to Bicester and deleted from the website.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraph by Birth Year Watches

 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Night Diver' by The 1916 Watch Co Reviews

 

FIRST QUARTER ROUND UP: New Pieces (Jan/Mar)

 

By this time next week we'll be knee deep in Watches & Wonders and presumably we'll know for sure whether or not those slightly odd looking, left hand crown, TAG Heuer branded Monaco clocks they keep putting up in the Grand Prix paddocks were a massive (hiding in plain sight) leak or just a weird way of advertising a watch that doesn't actually exist. My feeling is (and has been for some time) that it is the former, because why on Earth would you do that otherwise?

Well, soon the truth will be known and doubtless there will be tons of other new models released that need looking at too. But as I have said many times before I simply cannot keep spending all my time looking at new watches and ignoring the rich and varied history of the brand, so I will be very selective about which ones are featured and given C.O.C.O. 'First Impressions' scores... otherwise we'll be reading about nothing else until June!

But obviously I still want to make sure everything is covered, so to combat this overload of 'new release' posts I've decided to do quarterly round ups (rather than just one 'half-year' one) to keep you up to speed. So with that said, let's start by looking at the watches that we haven't previously spoken about...

FEATURE: The TAG Heuer Releases of 2025

 

At the start of the year I confidently (some might say foolishly) stated that this year things would be different and that I would write more about older watches, do more feature posts and generally write less about every single new release. Well.... that didn't exactly pan out like I hoped did it? I did avoid writing about a number of new watches, but TAG Heuer released so many watches this year (and so many limited editions) that it became almost impossible to keep things to a sensible balance. 

So once again I will have to have a long hard think over Christmas about exactly how I'm going to manage the blog in 2026. If TAG Heuer are going to continue to release 80, 90, 100 watches a year then I need to find a way to include more of them without giving each one a 'First Impressions' post and score. It's just not sustainable, especially as next year I want to focus (at least a little) on the 40th birthday of the Formula 1 - and as it happens I already have plans for that.

Maybe next year I will do a 'release round up' every month or two (which was an idea I pondered last year), I don't know... but I will come back to this soon. For now it's time to focus on the work that's already been done and the watches that have already been released...

Generally speaking it's been a bit of a 'meh' year from my perspective and there's been very few watches that have really caught my attention. In fact the only watches that I would really like to own have all been Monacos and sadly all three of those are too expensive for me to consider at present. Ah well, there's always next year - thank God TAG Heuer keep on moving, at least you know there's always the possibility of something exciting just around the corner!

But if the watches of 2025 have been a little disappointing, the blog itself has gone from strength to strength. I know I can't really trust the page view statistics (1.46m views over the last 12 months... for a single brand blog?) but I have seen a dramatic increase in comments left, so I know that more and more people are visiting, and that's really nice to see. Honestly this blog is a lot of work to keep up to date, maintain and improve and there's so much more I'd like to do if only I had the time... so thank you all for your comments and I hope I've helped people where I could.

Okay let's take a look at the 2025 watches and as you probably guessed there were no new Autavias or Links again this year. Honestly I don't know why they don't just dump the existing Links in the outlets and knock it on the head (or start again?), it's getting a little bit embarrassing at this point!

As usual, I've given you the scores for most of the watches but I've held back the top scorers for the big reveal on the 27th when this year's 'Council of Considered Opinion's Watch of the Year' will be announced.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Full Collection Tour by Vintage Vega

 

NEW RELEASES: TAG Heuer Aquaracer LE, Carrera Extreme and the New Balance Collaboration

 

There's been a flurry of new releases of late, some of which the Council of Considered Opinion are currently mulling over... however there are also some which aren't really 'C.O.C.O.' worthy, but which are still worth bringing to your attention... and so I hit on the idea of combining them into a 'New Releases' post.

So the first thing I want to talk about today is the collaboration with New Balance that launched a few days ago. These are pretty cool looking trainers, but my personal experience of ordering New Balance online was that they were way smaller and way narrower than expected, which was a shame because I did find some really cool designs but unfortunately I was a bit late to the party and they didn't have them in bigger sizes for me to reorder. 

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. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 by Random Rob

SPOTLIGHT ON: New Variations on the Titanium Solargraph and the 2021 39mm Carrera

We seem to be reaching the point of the year where TAG Heuer aren't actually releasing new watches so much as putting straps on existing models and trying to generate excitement about them by calling them 'Online Exclusives'... which is something I've never really understood. 'Boutique Editions' I understand (watches you can only obtain by travelling to a particular boutique, possibly in an exotic location like Monaco), but suggesting that something is 'exclusive' because you can 'only' buy it on the internet makes so little sense that I feel like I would need the world's most powerful microscope to measure it!

Anyway, I feel somewhat duty bound to at least show you a picture of these most elusive timepieces, but I really don't think there's any need to trouble the C.O.C.O. with either of them. After all, they'll still get to score them at the end of the year.

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 'Glacier Express' Limited Edition Automatic Watch

 

It never ceases to amaze me how even though I think I must have uncovered 99.9% of all the watches that TAG Heuer have made over the last 40 years, I still manage to find references that I've never come across before. This Aquaracer was actually the by-product of hunting for information on a different watch (another limited edition that I hadn't seen before, a 2015 'Swiss' Aquaracer) that I was trying to find a part number for. Google images threw this one at me, presumably because it is also a silver dial limited edition Aquaracer... and, well, I kinda like it!

The watch is currently on eBay, being sold from Australia for approximately £1985. If that seems a lot (it did to me too) even for a properly numbered 250 piece limited edition, one thing to point out from the off is that this watch isn't a quartz as I assumed it would be, but a Calibre 5. Even so, I doubt the seller will achieve that figure very easily. In fact the watch was previously up for £900 more, which was really reaching! 

SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer's 2025 Releases (Jan/Jun)

Once again we've reached the mid-point of the year and presumably passed the halfway point of TAG Heuer's 2025 release schedule. So it's time to refresh your memory and give you an insight as to what could be in the running for the COCO Watch of the Year award come December.

It's amazing, everywhere you look you hear 'TAG is back', indeed it's become a slogan for TAG Heuer themselves since they took over from Rolex as the official timekeeper of Formula 1. As an aside, if you are an F1 fan, don't you absolutely hate it when people say 'The F1'? Isn't that the dumbest thing you've ever heard? Or am I just an angry old man who hates change and gets upset about the stupidest things?

Well, maybe!

Which is kind of funny because, how can I put this.... everyone loves TAG Heuer's new direction, the endless glassbox Carreras, the new 38mm F1s and.... and.... I just don't! Initially I really wanted to like the new F1s, in fact I was even mentally setting aside the money to buy the red 'Italian' GP one, but having tried on a few of them now, I just find them slightly odd. 

Maybe it's because I've owned a ton of the original models and I'm still hung up on how they 'used to be', but while making them larger seemed like a great idea, it just doesn't seem to have translated somehow. The lume pots are too chunky, the hands are too small and thin, the case around the lugs is just weird and, well, I could go on... the rubber straps are extremely cool, I'll give them that, but I'm not buying a watch just for a cool strap (...again).

So yes, my excitement level this year is pretty low, in fact I'd say right now I'm struggling to think of a watch release this year that I'd actually want to own, save perhaps for the Monaco Gulf. I must admit I do quite like the black/lime Calibre 16 Formula 1, but in person it's not quite as exciting as I'd hoped. I'd rather get an old 500M Aquaracer in the same colour scheme for less than half the money.

Ah yes, money. It always comes back to money doesn't it? But how can it not. Prices are still rising at ridiculous levels and contributors to the THF Forums are one by one switching brands or simply stating that they've bought their last 'new' TAG Heuer. I have to agree. I can't honestly see myself buying anything else at 'full price', unless my circumstances change drastically, not when you see the 'real' market value of the current watches when they appear pre-owned on Watchfinder, etc within a few months. Now that's depressing!  

But, you know, when I got into this hobby I couldn't afford to buy new watches, and then for a while I could (just about) and now thanks to my stagnant wages and TAG Heuer's price rises I can't again. Whatever. Maybe in five years I will be buying a pre-owned 2025 watch at a fraction of the price it cost new? Or maybe thanks to the lunatics in Silicon Valley I'll be looking for food in the bottom of a dumpster while trying to avoid getting shot by security drones... 

Anyway, let's have a look back at what TAG Heuer have presented so far this year:

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 300M Professional by Bruce Williams