SPOTLIGHT ON: TAG Heuer Edge For Sale on Ebay

It's not every day you find a TAG Heuer Edge for sale on eBay, rarer still that it has the correct dial and bracelet (the vast majority of 'Edges' out there were made from cases that escaped the factory, usually using 2000 dials and whatever bracelet fits). For those not completely au fait with the 'Edge', the watch was a prototype that was subsequently abandoned in favour of the much more wrist friendly 'Kirium' and it's not that difficult to see why. Avant Garde it may be, but it's not exactly beautiful, is it?

And yet, when I saw this on eBay with just over 3 hours to go and no bids, I was more than a little tempted to bid on it. The only things that stopped me were a) concern that the bracelet might be one link too small, b) the fact that I bought two watches not that long ago and I don't need the earache... and (the deciding factor if I'm completely honest) c) noticing the state of the minute hand, which seems to have some black gunk spread up it.

At the end of the day if you step into the world of prototype watches, you really have to throw notions of quality control out of the window, because they don't necessarily apply. I must admit I had mixed feelings when I noticed the minute hand; part of me was kind of relieved because while I'm reasonably sure that £600 is a fair price for such a rare item, I didn't really want to lay out more money on something I'm not 100% sure about... but on the other, as brutal and ugly as this undoubtedly is, I kinda like it. Especially with the blue dial, and let's be honest... opportunities like this don't come along every day so the 'collector' in me definitely wanted to place a bid!

Price wise I guess this is one of those things that's difficult to pin down. On the face of it £600 seems fair, but on the other hand I'm not really surprised that it didn't sell. For one thing a lot of people just won't realise what this is, still more won't like it or might think it was a fake, and then of the few people left who know and who like it, how many are willing to stump up that kind of money for something that while unique and collectible, will probably be difficult to sell if they change their mind.

Interestingly, while this one hasn't as yet been relisted, I notice there's one on at the moment in Australia, which is on a black leather strap, the wrong dial and has a gold crown (not the correct knurled one as seen above) which is selling for $335 with about an hour to go... to me that makes the other one look a steal at £600 if I'm completely honest.

FEATURE: The TAG Heuer Edge Watch and Chronograph

As great as Calibre 11 is, it can't just be me who is bewildered that I can find pages on that site through a Google search that I can't find on the site itself through the menus... which is probably why I've never seen this before.

The TAG Heuer Edge was designed at the tail end of the 90s and was apparently a victim of the LVMH takeover. To be honest I'm not sure that was a bad thing. It's certainly a Marmite kind of design and one that actually brings to mind the Victorinox Inox Diver for some reason, even though it's clearly not that similar in looks (perhaps it's the similarly brutalist design?)

It would seem that post LVMH TAG instead developed the Kirium, which to me is both a nicer looking watch and one that's surely less divisive. In a way this watch kind of reminds me of some of those weird looking cars you used to see at Motor Shows, which the kid in you wanted them to build, but the bean counters decided was too niche to be commercially viable.

As you might expect, all roads seem to lead back to Calibre 11 with very little information out there that doesn't reference the article linked below. But I did manage to find another article (also linked below) written by someone who had bought a watch made using one of the cases developed for the 'Edge' watch.

RLT-029

Believe it or not he purchased this hand made watch for the princely sum of £49.95, including a sapphire crystal. To be honest I'm still not sure I like it, but the orange dial does give it a certain something. 

It seems TAG were looking to offer this with a choice of dials including orange, yellow, metallic blue and a 'meteorite' grey, but that these were destroyed when the watch was ditched. For some reason the cases got out and I've found cases for sale on the internet, and clearly RLT got them from somewhere too.

The watches were intended to be made in three sizes, including a ladies version. Strangely the orange watch pictured above and featured in the article is said to have a lug width of 17.5mm, which seems a bit small for a gents watch? The picture above shows two Edge cases shown on TZ-UK forum, the one on the right is a ladies model, it's a shame we don't have photographs of all three cases together (Full size, mid size and ladies).

TAG also developed a bracelet unique to the Edge range, which gives quite a nice integrated look.

It's surprisingly easy to find supposed TAG Heuer 'Edge' watches for sale, although the majority, on closer inspection appear to be Edge cases fitted with other TAG Heuer dials and movements.

In this particular case (left) it appears a Limited Edition 2000 has been plundered for it's innards, note the 'Seychelles' logo on the dial at the 8 position and on the right it looks like some sort of 1000 series has been used as the donor.

CN111D 2000 Series

Actually this should give some insight into the size of the Edge case because the CN111D 2000 Series is a 39mm watch. Actually this model was limited to 3000 pieces, and is worth about £5-600 on it's own so whether it was really worth doing is debatable... I guess it depends on what the seller could realise from their 'rare' Frankenwatch? I guess since the availability of a genuine Edge is almost non-existent, these watches probably have some novelty value.

This one is clearly made from the remnants of a Formula 1... and perhaps this one got the bracelet from the CN111D?

I recommend visiting the Calbre 11 article, especially if (like me) you haven't come across it on the site / haven't been able to find it!


https://www.calibre11.com/tag-heuer-edge-chronograph-prototype/

http://paxman-wasting.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/rlt-tag-heuer-divers-watch-rlt29_25.html