seasoning

oh, so that's what it's like to get a facefull of pepper....

interlude

I've been looking for a new watch for a while now as my old Tag Heuer 6000 is beginning to look a little tired.

Of course, there is actually nothing wrong with my 6000 except that it has always bugged me that I didn't opt for the automatic Chronometer version of the watch and lately, I've been hankering for something more classical looking compared to the highly designed thing that the 6000 is.

In fact, I had a very specific image of the watch I wanted.

Black leather strap.

Black dial.

Stainless Steel case.

Whether it was a Chronograph or just a watch wasn't that important.

For a while, these three had caught my eye.

Oris Artelier.

Maurice Lacroix Pontos

IWC Portuguese

Now all three had something I liked.

The Oris caught my eye because it is so simple looking on the wrist. The grey with black centre instead of plain black dial adds a nice dimension to it along with the markers instead of numerals.

Last year when my sister was hunting for a watch, I found myself mentally rejecting some of the ones she was looking at purely because of the numerals used so plain markers looked the way to go.

The Maurice Lacroix on the other hand, stood out the most because of the sharp edged case.

The Chronograph buttons being "hidden" or even disguised as a crown guard is a nice touch and again, you'll notice the use of markers instead of numerals.

However, I found the watch face to be a little too busy perhaps.

Finally, the IWC blew me away when I saw one in the metal because of its simple classic elegance. It seemed to tick all of the boxes with the exception of the use of numerals that I had previously thought I didn't like but on a classic looking watch like this, it works.

The two plain looking subdials and markers on the inner bezel are also much cleaner looking compared to the Maurice Lacroix. Of course, this isn't a chronograph like the Pontos is so maybe it's a little unfair to say that.

So which one did I go for?

Well, the answer is: none of the above.

This is my new baby.

Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887.

I did actually have a look at this whilst I was in Hong Kong but somehow, when I got back to the UK, it had completely left my consciousness and I have no idea how/why.

I mean, just look at it.

Pure Gorgeousnessliness.

Nice sharp edges case (doesn't photo well because it's also a rather delicate looking thin outer bezel).

Plain black face with two very simple polished steel rimmed sub-dials with minimal markings.

Polished markers for the hours.

I love the old fashioned stop watch style buttons for the chronograph.

I also found out that they have slightly modified the design of the watch and would be slowly rolling out the new one soon too so if I wanted this one, now is the time.

The watch also has a clear back.

All the better to see the (sort of...) Tag Heuer in-house movement.

So now, my old and slightly battered 6000 is probably going to take a little more battering now that there is a more fragile mechanical younger brother in the house.

Such is the way of things; the newer, younger and prettier model gets treated much better than the older, familiar and slightly used one that's been around for a while.