ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer 500m Dive Watch

WAK2180.FT6027

Cheshire Oaks / 14th October 2017

Generally speaking, in my experience, while the quality of staff at the Cheshire Oaks has always been superior to that at the Bicester village outlet, it's usually the case that Bicester gets the best stock. However, having fairly recently visited the Bicester branch and been largely underwhelmed, it was nice to see some good stock on offer here today.

Notably, there was a carbon fibre cased Carrera along with several of the higher end Carrera models including the flyback Calibre 36 Racing and the stopwatch style Carrera CAR2C12. But what really caught my eye today was the WAK2180.FT6027 pictured above. I don't think I've ever seen one of these close up before and it really grabbed my attention. Not only is it a 500m diver with a helium escape valve, but it also comes with no hideous cyclops spoiling it's looks.

This watch is surprisingly slender for a 500m diver, and a little bit on the small side for me really. Well, truth be told it's 40.5mm in diamter which really is the bare minimum for me and being black it wears smaller. In fairness it didn't help that I was wearing my 45mm Heuer 01 Skeleton, and I think it would have been fine and I was really rather taken with it.

The problem started when I tried it on. It looked great, but within one minute I could tell it was digging in my wrist and when I took it off there was already a red mark. Now, you may remember my previous troubles with TAG Heuer's rubber straps with deployment clasps, but on first appearance this looked like it would be okay. TAG had resolved the terrible clasp that featured on my other two watches, but this time it was the folding part of the clasp that was digging in me. It seems my wrist is quite oblong in shape and the curve of the folding clasp was just too severe for the shape of my wrist (something the newer designs like on my Heuer 01 have done away with altogether) and so the tail end of it just curved straight into my wrist.

I've experienced exactly this problem before as it happens, on the 2000 models I bought from eBay and subsequently sold on, but I didn't expect this to happen again and makes me wonder if I'm ever going to be able to wear any of TAG's older models?

Still help was on hand... when I first asked to try the piece on the salesman (Joe) asked about my Heuer 01 and asked if I had any other watches. As I listed my collection, he suddenly asked if by any chance I had an account on Calibre 11*. Ah-ha! We had a good chuckle about that and my comments about the staff at Bicester and in particular the guy who tried to tell me the date on the Monaco 24 was the hour register for the chronograph!

He said the staff are not allowed to comment on the forums (which is fair enough and probably a good policy) and that they use the site to get information, in particular the 'Limited Editions' thread - which was interesting to hear. Nice to know in some small part we are providing assistance to those selling the watches we love.

Joe was excellent, if all the staff in the group were like him then I think TAG would be very happy indeed. Nothing was too much trouble, he offered to try fitting a different rubber strap they had in the store (it didn't fit in the end but the offer was there) and failing that he offered to source a pin and buckle style strap for me and to post it on to me free of charge.

Joe managed to find a very similar strap to the one the watch originally came on, but in the end I was very wary of buying something when I couldn't see it in it's finalised form. I must say, it seemed easy enough to get a replacement strap for my CAU2012, but while it fits and it's fine, the strap is bulkier than I'd like and a real struggle to get on and off.

With that disappointment in mind, I really didn't want to take that chance of being unhappy with another purchase again and decided to pass. I did try on the steel cased/bracelet version. And while that was okay, I didn't like the steel case as much as the black case, and more annoyingly without the pop of yellow on the second hand the watch looked rather dull in comparison.

WAK2110.BA0830

Both watches featured the ceramic bezel and while it may be scratchproof, I'm not so sure about it. Black ceramic looks like an absolute nightmare when it comes to finger marks, I can't imagine what a fully ceramic watch would be like - truly horrible to keep looking nice I should think.

Ever helpful, Joe said they could send the watch to Bicester if I changed my mind and that the offer of the free strap would stand. I actually felt quite bad that I couldn't buy a watch from the guy as he had been so helpful, but even saving about £500 off the list £1650 was a bit too much for me to chance on a purchase I wasn't sure I was going to be 100% satisfied with.

I must admit I am still a bit undecided about whether or not it was the right decision. I think if it had been the blue bezel limited edition boutique version I would have snapped it up and worried about the practicalities of the strap later, but unfortunately it wasn't.

WAK2181.FT6027

As I left I saw the black and silver Monaco 24 in the cabinet again, it's still gorgeous but it's still £5100 and that's a long way off for me. But you never know... 

*Obviously what he should have said was 'Are you Rob from 'tagheuerenthusiast.blogspot.com'? But since he was so helpful I'll let him off!

ON THE WRIST: Aquaracer 500M Calibre 16 Chronograph

CAJ2180.FT6023

TAG Boutique / Cheshire Oaks 19th September 2015

For the last couple of years I've regularly seen this watch (and similar ones, some with the date on the left hand side) for sale at big discounts in the TAG boutiques in Chester and Bicester. On this particular occasion they were offering this model at a huge saving, down from £4000 or thereabouts to £1850.

Nigh on 55% off a brand new TAG is not to be sneezed at and I did strongly consider purchasing this one, but in the end I just wasn't sure enough about it. Even now when I see them I still can't quite make up my mind about it, which probably means it was the right choice not to buy one. I really like the colour scheme, I am very keen on black and green, but to me it's not bold enough. The black could be be blacker and the green should be much bolder in my opinion, but as I've said before my choice of black and green would possibly be a bit too strong for most buyers.

Also of course, I already owned the Aquagraph which is not dissimilar, yes this one is black PVD coated and so it is aesthetically different, but essentially it is a chunky 500M diver - albeit one with lesser specifications than the Aquagraph. But that didn't stop me trying it on of course, and it was okay, but somehow it didn't really look like a £4000 watch to me. I paid £2,100 for my Aquagraph and the list on that when it was being made was about £3000 I believe and I can't quite see where the extra £1000 is coming from. True the Aquagraph stopped being made quite a while ago and if it was still in production it would probably be at least £4000 now, but somehow despite this watch's size it lacks the Aquagraph's 'presence'.

It's a shame because I like the individual elements of the watch but it seems to add up to less than the sum of its parts when viewed as a whole. I can't remember what the clasp was like as it was quite a while ago that I tried this one on, I do quite like the strap and wonder if it would fit the Aquagraph?

I'm guessing (given the discounts and the number of times I've seen it in the boutiques) that this one hasn't been the most successful of TAG's products, but if you snagged one during the period they were shifting them for £1850 then you probably got yourself a big chunk of watch for your money.

ON THE WRIST: Carrera Calibre 16 Chronograph Speed Limited Edition

CV2A1J.FC6301

TAG Boutique, Cheshire Oaks 17th October 2016

This was one of three Carrera's I tried on on my recent visit to Cheshire Oaks, the other two being Mocaco Grand Prix models from 2012 and 2013. This one has quite an unusual look, and probably one that will prove a bit Marmite I suspect. It certainly didn't hold much water once I actually got it in my hands and on my wrist. 

I think my main problem with it is the way the dials break up the orange stripe, to the point that it no longer really looks like a stripe anyway, more a random orange splodge on the dial. Perhaps if they hadn't taken the orange around the 'seconds' sub dial it would have helped, but they didn't... so it hasn't. I'm not mad keen on the flag logo on the sub dial either, but I suppose this is a Goodwood Limited Edition so they wanted to put something on there especially as there's no room to decorate the back.

I guess it didn't help that I was being distracted somewhat by the 2012 Monaco GP Carrera sitting on the tray in front of me, but this one really didn't make a massive impression on me. It's a classic case of looking nice in the cabinet but once it's on the wrist it's a little underwhelming. 

Perhaps it has proved a little underwhelming with most people as it seems a little strange that a watch that is limited to 250 pieces should end up in Cheshire Oaks selling for about £1000 less than it's retail. I suppose when you look at it like that it's a bit of a bargain, especially for a Carrera with a display caseback. But for me it just didn't really have that certain something which made me want to buy it.

A trip to Chester and Cheshire Oaks...

This last couple of days I have been in Chester and also Cheshire Oaks where there is a TAG Heuer outlet store. There are quite a number of jewellers in Chester, though oddly the Ernest Jones seems to be completely down-market, focusing on fashion watches and the like. Maybe there's another Ernest Jones somewhere that I didn't see, but it was more like a H Samuels in there to be honest.

Beaverbrooks is almost opposite and had a decent selection of TAG Heuer's, albeit not the most exciting range I've ever seen. They did have the Red Bull Formula One (on the technical strap) which I tried on though, and also a decent selection of Tudor's (including the North Flag, Black Bay and the blue and grey Pelagos models) if you like that sort of thing...

Further down the street there is Walton's of Chester who stock a good selection of TAG Heuer's and quite a lot of Brietlings as well. My attention was particularly caught by the utterly nuts Avenger Hurricane, a 50mm resin cast monster with 24 hour hands. I really wish I'd gone in and tried it on actually, though I'm sure 50mm is way too big for me. The price is certainly way too much for me, somewhere between £7-8,000.

My next stop was David M Robinson's where I tried on the Aquaracer 300M Black Phantom and also the Aquaracer 300M with the black and yellow rubber strap. I'm sure there were more stores that I didn't really look in as well, including Boodles which had some very tasty Patek Philippe watches in the window (not really my thing, but you can't help but admire them).

Also there was a shop inside the shopping centre which had quite a selection of used Rolex's (alongside a lot of lower end brands like Citizen etc) and also had a few pre-owned Breitlings (including one monstrous silver chrono) and a Tudor Black Bay with the burgundy bezel which they were selling for £1700, which seemed pretty reasonable.

Just up from that there was yet another watch store, although strangely TAG Heuer was a noteable absentee from their roster. Perhaps TAG just have too many dealers in Chester? The store stocked a fair few of their semi-obvious competitors like Baume and Mercier, Bell and Ross and Hamilton so I fully expected them to stock TAG Heuer as well.

Moving on to Cheshire Oaks, I've always found the TAG Heuer store there to be a much nicer experience than the one in Bicester Village. The one in Bicester sometimes has better stock (but equally, not always), but the staff in the Cheshire Oaks one always seem much nicer and less pushy.

They have a very large selection of ladies Link watches in there at the moment, perhaps they are gearing up for Christmas, I guess that makes sense. But also a fair assortment of mens pieces too. Today I tried on the Monaco 24 in blue and silver, and also the orange / grey. A Carrera 'Speed' Limited Edition (250 pcs), a Carrera Monaco 2012 Grand Prix Limited Edition (3000 pcs) and a Carrera 2013 Monaco Grand Prix Limited Edition (4000 pcs), all at hefty discounts.

I also spotted a black / green 500m Aquaracer (though the price seems to have gone back up on that one, they were selling for £1800 at one point, but now back over £2000, but still a huge discount off the list price of £4000), a good selection of Grande Carrera models in black with orange, yellow and red accents.

I wish I lived nearer the Cheshire Oaks store as it's a long drive up there for me. Of all the things I tried on today, the nearest I came to buying was definitely the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix Carrera, at £2400 it seemed like a great deal, but I just couldn't be 100% on it this time. If you've never been to Cheshire Oaks, it really is worth a visit, but take plenty of cash!