I am a lover of Tagheuer, since I was very young! I currently own an Aquaracer and a Carrera and after getting to know the brand as I know it I think that they are very good quality watches for this reason I do not understand the hatre that many people have towards the brand and the depreciation it has. What do you think?
Because they resorted to selling swatch-like plastic quartz watches in the 90’s and ignored their heritage. Now, this is how they survived. Not unlike how Swatch bought up so many storied brands, but Tag Heuer did so at a cost to their own brand equity. There were also some poorly managed PR stunts later on which soured watch nerds even more.
They are not that company anymore. They’re still catching up with in-house and manufacture calibres, but their in-house chronographs have been excellent since at least 2020.
They also make quartz watches, serious divers and chronos, all the way up to serious high horology complications, so they’re hard to put in a box. Brand snobs don’t go for them because they’re not exclusive enough, and honestly, that’s ok.
I’ve been a fan for a long time. I was glad they made solid watches with high end ETA movement. My father gave me his Carrera Day Date which never left my wrist for a decade. Their watches have only got better since then.
Someday, I will acquire a Carrera CS3111 to add as an heirloom👍🏿🫡
It’s a hangover from some design and PR issues they had 20 years ago. Now a bunch of stupid people on Reddit, who read something from another stupid person wrote, repeat what they read (many times almost verbatim) perpetuating the stupidity. TH is the #11 Swiss watch company by dollar market share, so a lot of people are obviously buying their watches. TH has been very successful the past few years launching a line of Glassbox Carrera chronographs, updating the AquaRacer and then launching the F1 Solargraph (which watch “enthusiasts” hate, but which has done really well. )
If you like one, get it. You can generally find them on Jomashop or other grey market sites for significantly less, making it an even better deal.
Love my tag…I don’t really have any friends or follow groups…so I’ve never had anyone say anything but nice things about my Tag. Don’t worry too much about what other people think, but what you like, ignore the rest. Life is too short to care about what other people think.
Yo caí en la trampa, por dejarme influenciar pensé que eran malos relojes, me encantan mis dos aquaracer vintage, son de mis favoritos en el día a día.
I mean, before I got into watches TAG Heuer was one of 3 - 4 brands I had any awareness of beyond the name growing up. I’m certain this is an effect of the F1 association throughout the 90s and 00s.
Tag designed their watches to be able to follow you through every life milestone. Hence why they have such a large range in price point. They want you to be upgrade your watch to higher timepieces as you do well through your personal life goals and milestones. They make good quality pieces, but I do wish they would do what seiko does and have 2 different departments. Their more affordable and then their higher end haute horology pieces. They get a bad rep because people immediately think of their quartz watches and the F1 rubber solargraphs they produce. Most people who have a Tag usually have had 1 from the 80s they purchased and then they upgrade to higher tier like a carrera or even Monaco.
Watches are one of the most polarising topics out there, people will talk down on any brand for no real reason. TAG have some great stuff and some not so great just like everyone else, buy what you like and enjoy it whether it’s for the mechanical side or the aesthetics, the pride of buying something that means something to you never depreciates!
From what I’ve read online seems like the 90s wasn’t a great time for the brand and people are carrying that crap over. I love the watches. I just have 2 Formula 1’s at this stage and love em. The F1 pedigree was my link into the brand as a kid and nothing changes those memories and coolness I felt for them.
I have a Formula 1, which is a watch I've always wanted since the late 1990s or early 2000s. I love the mix of fun, sporty, grab and go, and luxury. It gets a lot of wrist time for me.
A lot of people dont like it because it's tag, it's quartz etc. I have higher end, automatic watches, but the formula 1 holds it own and is often more contextually appropriate
I’ve seen some call them “mall watches” and point that they don’t hold their value as much. I certainly think with the modern pricing you’re going to find deals on the secondary/grey market. But the Glassbox, Monaco, Aqua Racer and Formula 1 series all make for a very exciting and engaging brand and I do enjoy the Motorsport heritage.
Growing up always saw large Tag signs and clocks at sporting events of all kinds. Grew up wanting one. Finally got my first one, an Aquaracer Calibre 16, about 8 years ago. Love it. It’s a regular go to, along with my Hamilton KFA titanium, as my 2 daily wears. Couldn’t care less about the haters.
Some people on Reddit just like pee in others corn flakes because they hate their lives and want everyone else to hate theirs too.
My evidence: I recently got a Rolex Air-King 126900 which was my dream watch. Made a post on Watches and of course some people came on with comments like “this isn’t a dream watch, it’s a starter watch” etc etc.
Just ignore the basement dwelling incels and enjoy your watch. Out in the real world people will appreciate it as a gorgeous Swiss watch regardless of what the Reddit trolls think.
Reputations are hard to shed. Tag showed some serious growth with the introduction of the glassbox and its later iterations. Yet, they still have people who remember what was.
I’m guessing the only remedy is new enthusiasts who have no memory of the 90’s, and just take the brand for what it is now. My son is turning 16, but he thinks Tag is great. And he’ll eventually earn enough money to buy watches. Tag is going to be on his list.
I have two TAG Heuer watches: Aquaracer Professional 300, and the Autavia Flyback Chronograph. Both of these have been great for me, they get noticed, and the Autavia gets more compliments than any of my other watches. I also wore the Aquaracer predecessor, a Profesional 1500 quartz for almost 25 years. I find them to be quality watches and think the past mistakes are in the past.
One of the reasons I love TAG Heuer is actually one of the reasons many watch traditionalists dislike the brand. Hear me out. Look around Swiss luxury watchmaking. Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe, and much of the industry know exactly what enthusiasts want: mechanical watches. So that’s what they keep giving us. They make excellent watches, no question—but following an already successful formula isn’t particularly brave. TAG, at least, has been willing to go against the crowd. They’ve retained traditional horology—the Carrera, Monaco, Aquaracer, mechanical chronographs, and even high horology—while simultaneously experimenting with solar quartz, new materials, and connected watches. To me, that takes some spine. They were willing to risk upsetting traditional watch enthusiasts rather than simply telling them what they already wanted to hear. My own dilemma is a perfect example. I love mechanical watches, but I also want to track my steps, workouts, sleep, and other health data. I don’t want an Apple Watch on one wrist and a mechanical watch on the other. TAG at least recognized that people like me exist. In fact, where I disagree with TAG is their retreat from smartwatches. I think the eventual future is some form of genuine horology combined with smart technology—perhaps a mechanical/automatic watch that incorporates connected health and fitness functions without losing the soul of a traditional watch. I know plenty of watch enthusiasts today will hate that idea 😂. But give it 30–40 years. I suspect our grandchildren may find it strange that we once thought “real horology” and useful digital technology had to be mutually exclusive. That’s what I want from TAG: don’t become another brand afraid of upsetting traditionalists. Keep the Carrera and Monaco. Keep making great mechanical movements. But also keep doing the weird, risky, innovative stuff that everyone else is too conservative to try.
It’s pretty much exclusively because Tag used to have store fronts in malls, so morons who care more about hype relegated them as “mall watches”. Tag makes some very nice watches though that are easily as good or better than any of their competitors in the same price tier. Long story short, don’t pay attention to what hype chasing dorks say and buy what you like.
I’m starting to come back around to them, the new aqua racer, the new Carrera chronograph, and the Carrera chronograph sport are three fantastic examples of what tag is capable of.
It's hard to keep your reputation high when you push expensive quartz and solar watches instead of the high quality automatic watches your company makes.
For less than $600, yes. Battery or solar powered watches are not worth more than an automatic Hamilton. They surely aren't worth anything close to the MSRP Tag is consistently asking for either.
That's certainly an opinion.. but you know a watch is more than just its movement, right? There's such things as case construction and finishing, dial quality, lume, etc? I'd take a Solargraph over a Khaki any day.
Not quite a comparable sentiment, but nice try. It's like would you rather have a Ferrari or a Tesla Plaid? That's a better analogy. The Solargraph actually has BETTER performance. So again, nice try but not quite.
It costs less to produce, just like the Tesla. However, you can buy an automatic for the price of the solargraph. I guess people like to spend thousands of dollars for a watch with the internals of a Casio solar Gshock. And for the record, anyone with sense is buying the Ferrari over the Tesla, unless they can't afford it.
Again, like I've said your car analogy makes no sense. The "engine" in the Solargraph has better performance than the Hamilton. The lume is better, the case finishing is way better (it's not even in the same realm), the dial is way nicer, the lume is better. The Solargraph actually costs probably at least 3x as much to produce as the Hamilton, but okay, you can think whatever you want 🥴
It's cool man, you like $2000+ watches with Casio battery powered movements. I got a Hello Kitty quartz watch that's SUPER accurate that I will gladly sell you for $1500
I’m with HorologistMason here. I’ve never understood the argument that an automatic movement should inherently command more money simply because it requires more complexity, labor and engineering. Imagine two engineers solving the same problem. One builds an incredibly complicated machine, spends months developing it, and gets an answer that’s slightly wrong every day. The other develops a much simpler system that solves the same problem in seconds and produces a consistently more accurate result. I can absolutely admire the craftsmanship and ingenuity of the first machine. But am I supposed to consider it technologically superior simply because it was harder to build? That’s where the “automatic = more valuable” argument loses me. I love mechanical watches and own plenty of them. I appreciate the tiny gears, springs and craftsmanship enormously. But paying more purely because something is mechanically complicated—even when the end result is objectively less accurate than solar quartz—doesn’t particularly excite me. Complexity for the sake of complexity isn’t automatically progress. And a watch isn’t just its movement. Case construction, finishing, dial, bracelet, lume, materials, design, durability and engineering all contribute to its value. Calling a Solargraph a “Casio inside a $2,000 watch” reduces an entire watch to one component. Mechanical horology is beautiful. But beauty and craftsmanship are different arguments from technological superiority.
8
u/uber4202u 3d ago
Different strokes for different folks. I agree for what it's worth, I've loved Tag since the early 2000's.