FEATURE: My Top Ten Aquaracers by Imagwai

 

Once again in this 20th Anniversary year for the Aquaracer it's time to invite a COCO member to choose their top ten and this month it's our old friend Imagwai/Charlie M's turn. Unfortunately for various reasons Charlie wasn't able to supply text with his choices, so I will supply the commentary for his selections today. Yay!  

Oh and I suppose I should mention that Charlie submitted these to me a while back, before the new wave dial Aquaracers came out. But judging by his scores for those I don't honestly think anything would have changed...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Skipper' Calibre TH20-06 Chronograph

 

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While of course it's refreshing to see any new TAG Heuer product garnering favourable comments in the wider watch community, the honest truth is that the new 39mm Carrera Glassboxes are by far my least favourite watches in the current TAG Heuer line-up (in fact I'm struggling to come up with much from the last 37 years I dislike more...). If anything these new so-called 'glassboxes' have made me realise how much better the older ones were than I ever gave them credit for. So, every cloud.... right?

But I realise that once again I am out of step with the the collective thinking and with that in mind I didn't really see the value in my writing a third post telling you why I don't like them. So instead I called on our good friend and devoted glassbox enthusiast Charlie M (also known as Imagwai on the THF Forum), to provide a much fairer and less antagonistic opinion.  

CHARLIE M: As someone who clearly favours both smaller and more traditional watches, I was delighted to be asked by Rob to put together my first impressions on Tag Heuer’s latest release, the 39mm Carrera Skipper. Tag have released a lot of new watches this year, but aside from the Carrera Panda, this was the one I was most looking forward to. Let’s take a closer look.

 

ON THE WRIST: Heuer Carrera 'Heritage Panda' Heuer 02 Limited Edition Chronograph (by Charlie M/Imagwai)

 

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As you probably know by now, in the normal course of events when TAG Heuer release a new watch I generally post a 'First Impressions' post based on whatever pictures and videos I can find followed by an 'On the Wrist' post later when I've had a chance to get hands on with the product. Of course with all these super limited editions of late it's not been possible to do this because they never make it to the boutiques. But thankfully on this occasion we can kill two birds with one silvery stone as our most recent journalistic recruit 'Charlie M (aka Imagwai)' has actually bought the latest Carrera Panda and as such is superbly placed to give us his 'First Impressions' & 'On the Wrist' all wrapped up in one splendid post... 

FEATURE: Is the Black Bay 58 the Perfect Watch? by Charlie M (aka 'Imagwai')

 

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The Tudor Black Bay 58 has become something of a 'meme' over the last year or so, such is it's popularity with the members of the TH Forums. Personally, as a tunnel-visioned TAGeristi I don't really see what all the fuss is about, but Charlie M (known to many of you as Imagwai) thinks differently and today he poses the burning question...

 

IS THE BLACK BAY 58 THE PERFECT WATCH?

Could the Black Bay 58 be the perfect watch? Obviously there is some subjectivity in answering a question like that, and if like Rob, you don’t much care for the styling, or if David Beckham irritates you, then you may have already stopped reading. You may also have seen some of the countless fawning articles and forum posts praising this watch and think I’m jumping on the bandwagon with what I’m about to say. But that bandwagon passed by quite a long time ago. Truth be told, it’s only now, about two and a half years since I bought it, that I am really falling for this watch in a big way. I’ll explain that a bit more in a moment, but first let’s take a look at some of the logical reasons why this watch is so perfect…