TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 automatic diver (ref. CAJ2110.BA0872)

Aug 16, 2010 by Evgueni Matoussevitch 7829 views

The Swiss brand will soon start selling its new TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 (Ref. CAJ2110.BA0872) automatic diver.

It took TAG Heuer more than a year to introduce a chronograph version of their highly successful Aquaracer 500M Caliber 5 diving watch. Equipped with a slightly decorated version of what once was the ubiquitous ETA 7750 automatic movement and is now its clone Sellita SW500, the TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 may become a good contender for the title of the most useless diving watch ever produced by the Swiss brand.

Really, what can be more useless than a diving watch powered by an automatic chronograph movement? You can’t use the chrono underwater, since you will most likely ruin the watch. Its tiny screen is too, err, tiny for a normal human being to see the chronograph’s readings when under water. To begin with, you don’t really need to use the chrono underwater, since the watch has a rotating bezel, which is more than adequate to measure periods of time of up to 60 minutes.

Well, at least you can use the chronograph on the surface, since, unlike most divers rated for depths up to 500 meters, this model doesn’t look on your wrist like a hungry headcrab (although it would take real guts to wear this model with a business attire.) To be frank, I can’t really imagine myself wearing this watch even with jeans and a t-shirt, too, since its dial and bezel decoration seem just too dressy for this kind of casual dress.

To my taste, the extra sub-dials greatly detract from the watch’s “light-weight” design greatly diminishing the “vertical streak effect” of the original Aquaracer 500M Caliber 5 that the brand’s PR department used to brag about.

The effect was finally destroyed with transferring the small date window to its standard position at 3 o’clock (in the Caliber 5 version the window was located at 9 o’clock balancing the Aquaracer’s oversized winding crown) and moving the trademark “shield” from 12 o’clock to a position between the date window and the central axis.

Together with heavy chronograph push-pieces at 2 and 4 o’clock, the watch gets even more unbalanced, looking like it is going to topple to its right side if left on a table. Frankly speaking, I don’t understand why TAG Heuer didn’t opt for the bi-compax layout that is once again becoming a trend among the watch makers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing personal against this particular model. It is just that I liked the original best.

Like many objects of industrial design, this model has strong points, too.

For example, the Rolex-style fish eye lens over the calendar aperture makes the function a lot more useful: something that may models equipped with “small date” windows regretfully lack. Also, it is actually good that their own variety of ETA 7750 ditches the “day of week” part of the calendar making the dial a bit less cluttered.

The timekeeper’s body seems to be ergonomically shaped (although I can’t stress enough that, measuring 44 millimeters in diameter and also being quite thick, it is clearly not a dress watch: it is just way too big for a normal personal to be comfortable wearing it with a shirt with relatively tight cuffs) and the bezel with its unusually shaped rim provides a very good especially if you really plan to use it under water.

The company plans to start selling the Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 in October, 2010. Price is still to be revealed, but expect something close to €5000.

WWR preliminary verdict

Originality 4.5/5
Build quality: 5/5
Usability: 4/5
Legibility: 3.5/5
Value for money: 3.5/5

Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 specification

Price range: €5000 / USD $6000 (Retail)
Movement: Caliber 16, based on ETA Valjoux 7750, automatic, 30 mm diameter, 7.9 mm height, Swiss Made
Jewels: 25
Cadence of balance: 28,800 vph
Functions & Complications: Hours, minutes, seconds, chronograph, date
Power reserve: 48 hours
Case: Stainless steel
Shape: Round
Size: 44.00 mm
Dial: Black
Numerals: Arabic (on the bezel)
Hands: Steel, luminous
Water resistance: 500 meters
Strap: Stainless steel bracelet
Crystal: Sapphire, antireflective
Back: Solid, engraved

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44 mm 500 m ETA Valjoux 7750 Tag Heuer

Comments

JunO Says: November 21, 2011 at 8:36 am

I just bought this watch and I think this watch is perfectly balanced. The position of the date at three o clock is perfect when I glance at the watch to check the time or date. I have left dominant eye if that really matters. Moving the Logo shield, It’s because That’s the only space available for a three ringed chronograph. The only thing I didn’t like the first time I wear it on my wrist is the size. It looks too big for me but when I look at it on the mirror, it actually look more manly. another comment is that the they should put the 500M engraving on the the steel bracelet like the one on the rubber strap version. this watch can blend both ways as a dress watch and as a sports watch. It’s a chronograph and a 500M diver’s watch.
Evgueni Matoussevitch Says: November 21, 2011 at 10:54 am

Thanks for the comment JunO!