The arrival of  the new Aquaracer 500m Full Black at Topper Jewelers is the opportunity for the second “Topper’s Corner” on Calibre 11. I love the all-black look of the Full Black and it reminds me of the Sinn U1 Black that I loved and owned for a while. TAG Heuer have really revived the black-on-black look over the last couple of years, with black case versions of the Monaco, Grand Carrera, Formula One and now Aquaracer joining the range.
I had a quick look at one of these in the …

The latest of the Basel 2010 watches about to make their way to the dealers is the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph (Ref. CAJ2110), which as the name suggests is a Chronograph version of the successful Aquaracer 500m series.
The Calibre 5 Aquaracer 500m was launched at Basel in 2009 and represented a significant step-up in size and style for the Aquaracer series, with its vertically textured dial, distinctive rubber bezel with applied markers, helium-escape valve and “cyclops” sitting over the date at 9 o’clock.
The new model Aquaracer Chronograph builds on this style-template, …

While today you might associated James Bond with Omega watches, here is something you may not know: Before Bond strapped on his Seamaster he wore a TAG Heuer in the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights.

TAG Heuer have added a PVD diver to the Aquaracer range, with the release of the Aquaracer 500m Full Black (Ref. WAJ2180).
Not officially part of the Basel collection, the Full Black will be released later this year
The Full Black features a finely brushed titanium case with black PVD coating and bright yellow/ green lume markers, that don’t show up that well on this photo ( in fact, these are pretty ordinary photos taken through glass, so they don’t really do justice to the colours of the watch).
The watch has all …

Sometimes watch companies must wonder what the secret is to a developing a successful new model. Watches that are lovingly developed by the world’s most powerful luxury goods company and backed by history and large marketing budgets can sometimes fail to catch fire (such as the Autavia), yet others that are developed as side projects can turn into hugely popular models that enjoy success over more than a decade. The watch that has become known as the TAG Heuer 1000 Professional series is a great example of the latter.
Having gone …

Despite being a late entrant to the diver watch market, Heuer/ TAG Heuer have released some cracking dive watches over the last 30 years. These have tended to fall into two categories- watches that have the style of a dive watch (such as the 1000, 2000 and Aquaracer series) and the more heavy-duty dive watches that are designed for professional use, such as the 1000m diver, the Aquagraph and this watch- the Super Professional.
The Super Professional was one of the last watches designed and made by Heuer before the 1984/5 …

Every year it seems that a different Vintage Heuer model enjoys its moment in the sun- collectors suddenly realise that there are some under-appreciated models out there (with under-appreciated prices to match), a few examples are bought and photos posted…and the Heuer collecting world has a new favourite.
Of course, there are always the “blue-chip” models- 1133B Monaco, Siffert Autavia, Carrera 12 that will continue to appreciate (although my view is that the Siffert and 1133B values will slow in their appreciation), but the real fun comes in finding models that …

One of the great aspects of the Heuer Autavia was the variety of movements, case designs and colours variations that are available. From the iconic two-register Automatic Siffert to the three-register GMT manual, there are many classic Autavia designs. Perhaps the rarest is the Diver 100 (Ref. 11063P), a model which appeared only once in the 1982 catalogue.
This model borrows much of its style from the Rolex Submariner- the bezel design, circular hour markers and Mercedes-style hands are straight out of the Rolex  design book. The Diver 100 comes on …

If you think about the 1960s and 70s as being Heuer’s motorsport era, then the 1980s and 90s were without doubt the era of the Heuer (and TAG Heuer) Diving watch. Models like the 1000 and 2000 (today’s Aquaracer) series drew their design inspiration from the dive watch template established by Rolex.
While much of the range during this period had some link to diving watches, the watches that stand out the most for me are the hard-core, “Professional Diver” watches- real tool watches for when you need to dive deeper …