July is officially here, and counting through the latter stages of May and the entirety of June, this is my third beach day. Which is just terrible. Every weekend, it rains. Saturday? Rain. Sunday? Rain. Random Friday or Monday I’m out of the office? Rain. I continue to have to same skin tone as a sheet of printer paper, and so when I got up this morning and saw that it had not, in fact, been raining, it was off to the beach for me. For those of you who live totally landlocked, the beach is a part of the coastline where the land meets the ocea- …okay I’m being told that being mean is not in fact a winning strategy here, my bad. But seriously, I don’t know how you do it. If I don’t live within a reasonable distance of the ocean - at least a short day trip away - I lose my mind. Dramatic, yes, but aren’t we all to some extent?
Anyways, today was a good beach day, and I decided to take a trip down the halls of nostalgia and bring out perhaps my greatest ever eBay find:
This is a TAG Heuer 2000 Series Automatic, reference # WK2117-1, a 200 meter dive watch from the late ‘90s/early 00’s that was essentially the Aquaracer before the Aquaracer came to exist. That was around the time when my family and I traveled a pretty fair amount, and I remember always seeing these TAGs in the airport watch stores and boutiques. They were especially popular in the Cayman Islands from what I can remember, where I would visit with my grandparents every summer. And while I don’t have any data to back up that perceived popularity besides my own recollection, it always seemed to be TAGs and Rolex Submariners on the wrists of fellow travelers and vacationers. I had a TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph as a kid, and that was my every day watch for the better part of 10/11 years. Back then, I remember feeling this sense of being in the cool club with all of these fancy adults and their watches, and that’s stuck with me as I’ve gotten older, this connection between the TAG Heuer divers and a good beach day.
TAG has gone in just about a million different directions over the years, but these divers were one of the best production runs they had after the TAG takeover. The angular bezel is easy to use, the dial is a beautiful blue sunburst with an inner and outer ring set, and the case size is right in the sweet spot at 38mm.
While wearing this watch has obviously been nice from a memories and nostalgia standpoint, it’s earned its place in the rotation on its own merit. I’ve come to re-appreciate the utility and sleekness of steel bezels all over again, and have added them to my unofficial official bezel ranking system:
Aluminum Bezel Insert
Steel Bezel
Bronze Bezel
Bronze Bezel Insert
No Bezel
Some Other Bezel
(dead space)
(reassess and try to secure any of options 1-5)
Ceramic Bezel (a la Daytona)
Ceramic Bezel Insert
Yes, it is true. I hate ceramic bezel inserts. Bite me. They lack character, and the shine, if not done properly, can easily make a watch look cheap and iffy. The only ceramic application to a watch that I actually like is this one, and that’s because it’s matte and essentially a full stealth mode piece. But anyways, back to the TAG.
The clasp and bracelet are light, rickety, and awesome! The clasp especially is very similar to the Submariner and Explorer clasps of the 80s and 90s, where instead of being solid metal, they were light, punch-out pieces of what I swear were just tinfoil on some minor steroids. But they have a feel all their own, and they make for a good wearing experience, even if they may not be as solid as their modern day cousins.
If there is one part of this watch that I don’t love, it’s the crown, I mean, it’s a nice looking crown, and it recesses well into the case from a design standpoint, but it is a pain to unscrew and wind due to its size and lack of grip. It’s like trying to twist the end of a metal chopstick into a piece of sesame chicken, but only after pouring oil on your hands for no reason. Not the best, not ideal. But hey, in lieu of being able to directly teleport into the past and experience my Cayman beach memories all over again, I will happily put up with a less than ideal crown. Nothing a good beach day can’t fix.
These beach-ready pieces of goodness still pop up every now and again for incredibly reasonable prices - in some cases just a few hundred bucks - and if you like the quartz varieties, those numbers often drop even lower. So if you’re itching for a slice of the TAG Heuer summer nostalgia pie, go poke around the internet and see what’s hitting the market. This one will be getting plenty of beach time with me…that is, if the weekends stop submitting personal requests to weather human resources for rain.
As always, wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, many thanks for stopping by.
I actually read this a week ago and ran out of time to comment, my friend has this the same one and I refurbed it last year since then I’ve wanted one 😀😀
It’s a perfect watch great proportions not to diver not to dress not to heavy and not to flash might be the ultimate gada.
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On another note, Congratulations your going to be a great Dad I can tell, it’s the hardest most rewarding challenge you’ll ever do, some days you’ll laugh so hard you’ll cry and everyday you’ll smile
It’s the greatest thing
Wishing you the best
Heath
I’ve got lots of tips especially when it come to spending money on stuff you don’t need ........ your about to enter a complete new marketing world with its own culture be careful
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Wishing you and your wife ...... happiness 😍