BUYING EXPERIENCE: Cartier Pasha Quartz Watch

 

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While my wife Rose does have a pretty healthy selection of TAG Heuer watches that she's collected over the years, she hasn't been quite as loyal to the brand as I have. Over the years she's picked up a skeleton-dial Oris Atelier and an Omega Constellation quartz (both of which are right up there amongst her favourites) and now she's expanded this betrayal to include her very first Cartier. 

For a while she had been looking at a number of blue mother of pearl dial 'Links' on Watchfinder but couldn't quite decide if they would ever look as good in real life as they did in the pictures (my guess is not). Prior to that she had been looking at some nice looking Dior watches on the same site, but gave up on them when she realised how small they were...  and then she started looking at Cartier. I must admit I was quite surprised at this because she's never been one for Art Deco and she hates Roman numerals on watch dials (which most Cartiers of course have). 

SPOTLIGHT ON: The Winter Sale at Michael Jones (Northampton)

If you like the idea of a post-Christmas bargain, but you've grown weary of yet another email from Beaverbrooks, Ernest Jones or Goldsmiths imploring you to take yet another look at the same twelve 'entry level' Aquaracers and Formula 1s they've been peddling since Boxing Day (or in some cases before Christmas), perhaps it's time to look beyond the big boys on the high street and investigate some of the independents who rather than bulk-buying 'window' watches for exactly these purposes, might actually be trying to shift some more interesting pieces at healthy discounts. Case in point, one of my two local AD's in Northampton, 'Michael Jones'.

Their window on Gold Street has a decent and somewhat surprising bounty of TAG Heuer watches just at the moment, which might be of interest to those of you living in the UK. I did actually take some photos on my iPod but I can't work out how to get them onto my computer, and they aren't really worth wasting too much time on when stock photos will do just as well.

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Top of the list, and most surprising of all for me is this Calibre 16 Formula 1 which has only been in store for a couple of months at the most. LIST PRICE: £2650 / OFFER PRICE: £1985

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Another relatively recent release (and one I believe I predicted would end up in a sale sooner or later) is this 2019 Indy 500 Formula 1 quartz. LIST PRICE: £1395 / OFFER PRICE: £1050

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With the news that Cara DeLavingne is on her way out as a TAG Heuer ambassador, I expect to see plenty of these in the sales and outlets over the next little while. Not sure if this list price is correct either, it seems high, but it's been removed from the TAG Heuer website and I can't find it new anywhere else. LIST PRICE: £3895 / OFFER PRICE: £2925

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Can't be 100% sure on this as I've only a photograph to go from, but it certainly looks like a CAR2A91 to me. LIST PRICE: £5395 / OFFER PRICE: £3895

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Again, I'm pretty sure this is the model they have, but I could be wrong. 

LIST PRICE: £4100 / OFFER PRICE: £2995

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Rather surprised to see these Links in the sale, but on the other hand I'm not sure if they've really been that big a hit with the public. Beautiful watches, but as far as I can recall the only time I've seen anyone wearing one was when Colton Underwood was 'The Bachelor' (USA) and he wore a diamond bezel model every week. Fortunately for TAG Heuer he spent quite a lot of time with his head in his hands which meant the Link got a lot of on-screen time!  

LIST PRICE: £3695 / OFFER PRICE: £2775

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They also have the non-chronograph version, which is obviously quite a bit more affordable.

LIST PRICE: £2450 / OFFER PRICE: £1835

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They also have a couple of Aquaracers which I think are WAY211As, the price certainly matches the TAG Heuer website. LIST PRICE: £2095 / OFFER PRICE: £1575

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Another very current ladies Formula 1, this one is two tone with hour marker diamonds and a mother of pearl dial. LIST PRICE: £1695 / OFFER PRICE: £1275

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This is one that I've featured in my Bicester Village reports, it's worth noting that while this looks like a good price, the Bicester price was £1470 (and as low as £1075 during their Christmas sale!) LIST PRICE: £2150 / OFFER PRICE: £1615

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Same story with this one actually, Bicester may well still have these at about £1330.

LIST PRICE: £1950 / OFFER PRICE: £1465

Michael Jones do also carry a fair stock of pre-owned watches, for example:

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This tasty Carrera Calibre 16 Monaco Grand Prix Limited Edition on a tyre tread rubber strap.

PRE-OWNED PRICE: £2950

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And this classic black PVD Grand Carrera. 

PRE-OWNED PRICE: £2495

Of course Michael Jones isn't restricted to TAG Heuer, they also carry Omega, Longines, Rolex and Breitling, but the watch that catches my eye in the window every time I see it is this pre-owned Cartier Santos 100 in black PVD.

This is a watch I tried on in Watches of Switzerland on one of my trips to London and while I like it a lot and I know it's a considerable saving over the new price, I still struggle with the idea of parting with £4850 to make it mine. Besides, it will stick out like a sore thumb in my collection, so I'll probably just admire it from afar.

Well there we are, not sure how long the 'Winter Sale' goes on for, but here are the contact details for the store:

Michael Jones, 1 Gold Street, Northampton, NN1 1SA    PHONE: (01604) 632548

Incidentally, you can mention my blog if you like but they probably won't have a clue what you are talking about. I have been in there a couple of times, I bought a rubber strap from them once and they polished my Microtimer for me (lovely job they made of that), but I haven't 'identified' myself to them as yet. :)

ON THE WRIST: Cartier Calibre de Diver Watch

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Goldsmiths / Meadowhall, Sheffield 26th January 2019

Whenever people ask me why I only own TAG Heuer watches, I always say it's because everything else that I really like is way too expensive. For the most part that's true, but now and again I come across the odd thing that, while not exactly inexpensive, is at least reasonably attainable. I've tried on a couple of Bell and Ross models which were around the £2-3000 price mark, and a couple of Breitlings that were more like £6-7000, but most surprisingly of all perhaps I've now tried on two Cartiers one of which I really liked (the Cartier Santos Carbon) and then there's this one...

I've been mildly intrigued by the Carter Calibre de Diver ever since I saw a photo of a rose gold version on the cover of QP magazine, in fact I saw one in Watchfinder (Canary Wharf) once but I didn't get to try it on at the time. So when I spotted this one in the pre-owned cabinet in Goldsmiths I thought now would be a good time to strap it on and check it out.

I didn't actually know it was available on a bracelet, I'd only previously seen it on a rubber strap (which looks much better in my opinion) so that was interesting... albeit I wasn't overly impressed with the design of it to be honest. It doesn't really strike me as very luxurious, in fact it looks a bit rudimentary... it's hard to explain why that is, but it gave me the impression that it could have come off a £500 watch. I'm not talking about the quality, just the design, it's a bit blocky and basic.

But leaving that aside, this is quite a nice looking piece, albeit it looks quite different (i.e. worse) in steel rather than rose gold. Then again, I have to say that the steel is infinitely preferable to the two tone version which really does look a bit of a dog's dinner if I'm completely honest. Some of you might be surprised that Cartier even make a watch like this, and that would be completely understandable. Cartier is a brand whose image is almost completely tied to the 'Tank' and the 'Santos' (which is basically a square 'Tank' anyway) and to a lesser extent the 'Crash', anything else they make is rather weak in the market and subsequently watches like this can be had for fairly reasonable prices.

Confusingly, in the store Goldsmith's price was somewhere in the £5500 region but on their website it says the list price is £5800, with a pre-owned price of £4495. However, Bucherer are currently listing this one at £7300, so unless this one's very old or the price has rocketed in recent years I don't know what's going on there!

Overall the watch was in good condition, albeit the ceramic bezel looked a little worn. I've noticed this recently on used watches with ceramic bezels, they might not scratch as such, but they do seem to wear on the edges. I don't know if it's possible to polish them back to their original state or not but it's worth looking out for if you are in the market.

This Cartier is water rated to 300M, making it a pukka dive watch - though I can't really imagine too many of these getting strapped on over a wetsuit, especially with the butterfly clasp fitted here. Both the Cartiers I have tried on have had these kind of clasps and I can't say that I'm a fan. I'm also not keen on the date window here, I know it's not unique to Cartier, TAG do much the same thing on some of the older Carreras, but it's never made sense to me. I'm also not crazy about the small seconds at the 6 position, and yet... overall, there's still something about this watch that I kinda like.

The watch felt okay on the wrist, it's not massively thick, but then again it somehow doesn't really feel like a Cartier somehow. It feels like any old steel watch with the Cartier name on it, which is not great. And I can't help thinking that if I was going to go for a Cartier Diver, I would splash the extra cash for the black/rose gold model. This one (above) is 'new' on Chronext with a two year warranty for £7940 and looks so much better! But then again, for that money you could get the Santos Carbon or any number of really cool TAG Heuers...