Review: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500m Chronograph
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, but adding Chronograph dials in the traditional Valjoux 7750-layout (12, 6 and 9).
Given TAG Heuer’s heritage in diver watches, and as a previous owner of an Omega Planet Ocean (45.5mm), I was keen to try the new Chronograph to see if it’s a worthy successor to my old quartz diver from the 1980s
Heritage
The Aquaracer series traces it origins back to 1982 when Heuer released the 2000 series. By 1982 the Heuer 1000 series was a big success for Heuer, especially in Japan, however its success presented a dilemma for Heuer. Heuer’s reputation was built on mechanical watches with Chronograph functions- but the 1000 series was neither a Chronograph nor a mechanical watch. The 2000 series addressed this by giving Heuer a quartz-Chronograph in the popular diving-watch style, and the series was initially marketed by Heuer as the “Chrono-Quartz” series.
Take a look at the photo below from the 1983 Heuer catalogue and you see several design features that TAG Heuer use on today’s Aquaracer 500m Chronograph- same sub-dial layout, date at 3 o’clock with a cyclops and rotating diver bezel.
At 44mm, the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph is the largest watch in the Aquaracer range, just as the 1983 Heuer 1000m Diver watch of the 1980s was the jumbo-version of the 1000 series- yet take a look below at how the 1000m diver is positively dwarfed by the new model.
Movement
The Aquaracer 500m Chronograph is powered by the familiar Valjoux/ ETA 7750 movement, which TAG Heuer call the Calibre 16. The 12-6-9 layout of the Calibre 16 dictates the placement of the registers on the dial and clearly the challenge here has been to fit everything on the dial. The dial layout becomes a little busy towards the 3 0′clock mark, trying to accommodate a date window, a cyclops, the TAG Heuer logo and the model name all within a pretty small corner of the dial.
On the Wrist
Despite the size of the Aquaracer, it doesn’t feel overly large on the wrist. The watch has a great feel of quality, reinforced by the applied hour markers, the ratcheting motion of the bezel and the bracelet design. One of my gripes with my old Heuer 1000m diver is the laughable quality of the stainless steel jubilee bracelet, which feels like something you find in a Kinder Surprise- no such problems with the Aquaracer and in my view it’s one of the nicest bracelets made by TAG Heuer
A quick word about the bezel- one of the controversial features of the Aquaracer 500m series. The bezel is a hard rubber finish that looks great with the applied silver markers and the exposed screw-heads. But while the design works well as a diving watch, it doesn’t look as up-market as a traditional metal bezel. I would have kept this distinctive bezel design as a feature of the 500m watch and used a ceramic bezel on the Chronograph version to distinguish it from the basic watch and give the Chronograph a more up-market appearance.
The chronograph pushers are a similar design to that used for the Grand Carrera Calibre 36 and the Monaco LS and work well with the design of the watch.
Comparison with the Calibre 5 Aquaracer
Below is a photo of the Chronograph 500m next to the watch-only Calibre 5 version. The Chronograph is 1mm larger than the Calibre 5, but borrows much of the design hallmarks of its smaller brother- the rubber bezel, vertically textured dial, applied hour markers and the use of a cyclops. However, as you can see below, the need to fit in the Chronograph registers has meant that two of the really distinctive features of the Calibre 5 model have been lost- the 9 o’clock date window/ cyclops and the applied “500M” marker than joins the centre stem to the date window.
When looking at this comparison photo a personal bias became clear- in my view, a Divers watch should be a non-Chronograph. Yes, the TAG Heuer Aquagraph is a true divers watch and is a Chronograph, but there is something about a clear, simple 3-hand layout that fits better with the design-ethos of a Diver as a tool watch (remembering that it’s not advisable to push the chrono buttons when under water). Likewise, I prefer the standard Omega Planet Ocean to the Chronograph version.
Maybe this is because many of today’s diver watches are based on the Rolex Submariner template, but for whatever reason, simpler is better when it comes to Diver watches in my view
Price and Availability
Overall I really liked the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph- the watch felt great on the wrist and I liked the larger size more than I thought I expected. But, for the reasons discussed above, it’s the basic Aquaracer 500m watch that I preferred- although I’m sure that many will disagree.
Depending on where you live, the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph should be available in the next few weeks, with a list price in Switzerland of CHF3,400 (in Australia, the watch will retail for A$4,500).
More photos of the Aquaracer 500m Chronograph can be found in the Gallery.
Great review, nice job done there!
If I may add my two cents why I do not really like this new watch:
I like Heuer/TAG-Heuer a lot (my other brands that I like are mainly IWC, Breitling, Omega and a few others). I’ve recently purchased the Aquaracer Auto Chrono Day-Date black dial on bracelet.
I like (and – so to say – collect) watches with the following features:
Well-known manufacturer, automatic, chronograph, day-date, steel case, turning 60 min. count-up lunette, good waterresistance (100m or more), all-dark dial, excellent luminosity, steel bracelet, safety clasp with double pushers, micro-adjust and diver’s extension, links with screws.
You cannot guess how narrow the choice is with all these requirements fulfilled… so I was very happy about the mentioned watch. This watch is up for sale now, practically unworn.
Reasons: there were a couple of things that disturbed me before purchasing but decided to go on. These things are:
- TH used the Elaboré version of the ETA 7750 for this model and as such for example it doesn’t have a Glucydur balance, has a Nickel balance instead. Again, may work well, but cheapish and the Glucydur is way more “temperature-insensitive”. Such a replacement balance was on order for me from another manufacturer. For this amount of money…
- day and date discs white with black writing. Did not disturb me so much because they can be replaced with black discs any day. On order again.
- bracelet links attached with pins instead of screws. Cheapish, but may work. With the very small micro-adjustment the watch was comfy just on the border with one more link in, so twice yearly I would have gone to the watchmaker to pin out or pin in one link.
- narrow micro-adjust on clasp: see above.
- diver’s extension too short and cheapish looking, stamped steel. I don’t dive but use my watch on the outside when nordic walking or x-c skiing.
So these are the downs that were known to me before buying. After a few days of wearing I discovered two important others:
- steel bezel has a very lightweight, cheapish feel and turns two easily. Many times in those few days it turned around unwanted. Official service center told me that nothing can be done. I wnet to the AD and felt a few others: really all AR bezels behaved the same.
- lume on the hour markings and hands were way too insufficient for my 50-year-old eyes. (A few other models have great lume, just to name a few Breitling CSO, IWC Aquaracer 2009 Chrono. So this can be made much better).
I was very happy to hear that there will be a successor model of the one mentioned above. Why I do not purchase? The reasons (in order of importance for me):
- Weekday feature disappeared! Otherwise dial is beautiful (I don’t know if there is a blue dial option but hopefully) and I love the cyclops again for readability and the Rolex origin does not disturb me. There are quite a few chances of maintaining the weekday window, see e. g. some Fortis models with day at 9 o’clock, or to place the date with the cyclops between 4 and 5 (with vertical digits!). Crowded dial does not disturb me.
- Helium valve appeared at 10. A very, very bad step from TH to do it this way!: it goes clearly after the Omega Seamaster, while 99.99999 percent of users do not saturation-dive, it stands out of the case, and I simply do not believe, that no-one at TH thought that if they wanna introduce a Helium valve the very best place for this is the steel part of the case at 9 o’clock!!! Here the following of the Sea-Dweller would have been the way to go, having a valve without standing out of the case (for example the Certina DS-3 re-issue has the same, so it is not trade-marked) and finally the extra part of steel of the case at 9 could have found a function (housing the valve), while for almost 30 years now it’s been purely a design element!
- rubber bezel looks nice but does not feel very durable on the long run and it still turns too easily, still has a touch of cheapness, though feels improved a bit.
- No info about the balance wheel, hopefully finally Glucydur but not sure.
- calendar disc in white again: replaceable.
- bracelet is completely unchanged regarding pins, short micro-adjustability and short and stamped-only divers extension.
So that’s why I won’t consider this new model though it had all the good base for TH to make it according to my wishes (and I guess to many other’s wishes). Today a watch with all the features I’ve written at the beginning of my post cannot be found on one special watch, but the order of importance makes me search elsewhere now. (My daily wearer is the Breitling CSO and the IWC Aquatimer Chrono Cousteau 2010 is on order for me.)
I’ll go on following the new TH models in the future but no real hope of returning the weekday for example, as the Seiko chronograph movement did not have this feature even at Seiko.
Remember: just my two cents, others may have of course different opinions.
Best regards: Robert