Hi Guys,

As most of you know, I recently acquired a Tag Heuer Aquagraph and just yesterday purchased the bracelet for this watch. I cannot say enough good things about my watch, so instead, I will share with you my Tag Heuer story.

About 15 years ago I started collecting watches. Nothing like what I’m doing today, mainly just accumulating Seikos and Citizens. Then one day, while working at a bookstore part-time (I was a student), we received a book/magazine called WATCHES 1994. It was my introduction to high-end watches. From Patek Philippe to Tag Heure, there was a mélange of everything under the horological sun. The coolest feature of this magazine was a section called “WATER RESISTANT WATCHES”, where they displayed the various divers. That is when I decided I wanted something “higher-end”.

Being a student with limited funds, I started hunting for something not too expensive, but would be considered high-end. I found a store in the mall I worked that sold Michel Herbelin. In that series there was a model called the Safari and it water resistant to 200m. It had a sapphire crystal and a black and red turning bezel. I had to have it. I put a deposit on it and paid it off in 2-3 months on a layaway plan.

I was very proud of this watch, but it did not satisfy me because this brand was not represented in the magazine! Then I noticed Bob Villa on TV sporting a Tag Heuer S/EL on his wrist. I looked through the yellow pages and found a store not too far away that sold them. When I first walked into this store, I was immediately struck by the sheer amount of different Tags they had. (Mosel for anyone interested)

I walked up to the counter and asked to see the S/EL. At $2800 (I think it was) I just could not afford one. So I asked if there was something a little less expensive. I was shown the F1 series of watches and found them too cheap. Then I was shown the 1000 series, I did not do anything for me, then came the 1500! Ah, there was this grey dialed one which had a frosted/rock like dial color. I fell in love! I was quoted $800 (or something like that). I did not have the money right then so I gave the watch backed and told the clerk I’d be back.

One week later I was in the store with a hand full of cash and the rest was put on my newly acquired Visa card! Now I was a happy camper! Then I got a job managing an electronics store (actual moved up the ranks until I was manager) and my boss at the time was a “real” watch collector. Since he only stopped by my store once every 2-3 week, I only got to gawk at his watches once in a while. He mainly wore a two-tone Rolex DateJust, but he also had an all gold Tag Heuer S/EL. That is when I finally got to handle one of these and fully appreciate its minute details. I still new nothing of mechanical watches and was going only on esthetics and design. That was it I needed one of these watches.

Many years later, I met my wife. At the time she had a job downtown and since I had Mondays off, I would join her for lunch. Next to her work there was a watch shop that specialized in pre-owned watch and did exchanges. Guess what? There was an S/EL in the window screaming BUY me! I walkled in and met the guy running the store. I told him I didn’t have enough $ to purchase his watch, but would he consider trading for mine, plus my Michel Herbelin and 2 Seikos. He said he’d have to see the watches. IO hoped into my car, went home, grabbed by stash and went back to the store. Thankfully, he agreed and there it was on my wrist. A mid-sized Tag Heuer S/EL, fully polished with a white dial. A VERY small watch by today’s standards, but I loved it. The only problem is that now the BUG had bitten and bitten bad!

I met more people through my work who owned Rolex Subs, Cartiers and of course more TAGs. That is when I decided I wanted something BIGGER. I just found my S/EL a little wimpy and if I could have found a full size, I probably would have gone for that one. I went back to the pre-owned shop and there was a 2000 series chrono on leather strap. We swapped straight up. I wound up not liking this watch because it was too thick. Again, these were the days before I discovered the Internet and all the new BIG watches. Then I went from Tag to Omega, to Tudor to… so forth and so on…

Then came the internet and the Tudor I was wearing was getting old and a Texas based watch retailer who has new watches every Mon-Wed-Fri (at the time) offered to trade for it. I wound up with a Krieger Tidal Chronometer. An underrated quartz watch and I liked it quite a bit. That led to many, many, MANY trades and in the last 7 years (since finding TZ and others) I had yet to get another TAG. From my pre-WIS experiences, I now found them to be “less” then the others I was now collecting. They were expensive and did not offer the same build quality as so many others, which retailed for almost half! It also didn’t help that public opinion on-line was not that great,

The last year, when I received my new InSync issue, I noticed an ad for a Tag Heuer dive chronograph with a centralized minute counter. COOL! Then I found out the MSRP… Not so cool… $4000 Canadian! So I dismissed it as another Tag Heuer marketing watch. They started popping up on-line here and there and Tag started making re-issue watches like the Carrera, Autavia and Monza. Then came the purchase of Zenith by LVMH and the use of the Caliber 36 (El Primero) in Tag Heuer watches. It seemed they were starting to get serious about making watches again and that they were no longer just going after the young hippies with some money to burn. I still did nto approve (as if they needed it) of the Tag’s MSRP strategy, but when you factor in the fact that most retailers will give you anywhere from 30-40% off, they start looking good. Still I found the Aquagraph a little steep.

Then I was offered one a as trade. I figured why not, let’s give these guys another shot. Boy am I glad I did! Not only is well made, it is super accurate (+1 sec every 2 days) and the bracelet is spectacular! Funny how 15 years later this Tag Heuer is making me feel the same way my first Tag did, but this time I am admiring it through WIS eyes.

Anyway, that’s my Tag Heuer story…

Have a good one!

Marc
Time2watch

p.s. Please pardont he spelling/grammatical errors.