Introducing The New TAG Heuer Aquaracer

TAG Heuer may be better known for its drivers’ watches than its divers’ watches, but the firm has a rich heritage of making serious sub-sea kit. From the Heuer ref. 11063P Autavia Diver back in 1982, through the ‘Monnin’ 844, 1000m Diver and the full-on nuts 1984 Super Professional 1000, there’s plenty in the back-catalogue to draw on for influences for the new Aquaracer Professional 300.

Like its forebears, this new watch has the six Aquaracer signature features: a screw-down crown, a unidirectional bezel, 200+ metres of water resistance, luminous dial markings, a sapphire glass and a double safety clasp. Mind you, those probably apply to pretty much every divers’ watch but it’s good to know the bases are covered, right?

The screw-down crown’s shroud is now a little more rounded, echoing the original Heuer 844 ‘Monnin’. The new ceramic bezel is dodecagonal, so it’s easier to grip even with slippery hands. Heuer’s engineers say “the mechanism is smoother, quieter and easier to set.” In fact, there’s a bit of a ‘rule of twelve’ going on. Even the scaphander diving helmet motif on the screw-down caseback has, you guessed it, twelve sanides on its faceplate. That crown and caseback help keep the Aquaracer water resistant down to 300m.

The case itself has shorter lugs with polished and chamfered edges and it wears thinner than previous Aquaracers. Behind the caseback is the TAG Heuer cal. 5 movement, a solid, tested and reliable workhorse that’s based on the venerable ETA2824-2/Sellita SW200-1.  38 hours of power reserve, shock protection, automatic and 28,800bph. The advantage of a movement like this is that you’ll never need to worry about spares.

The rhodium-plated, luminous applied dial markers eschew the whole twelve-sided thing by going for eight sides instead. You’ll probably also notice the hands are different from previous Aquaracers. The hour hand is now sword-shaped, (echoing the final 2000 Series from 2004) and the minute hand has lost some weight. They’re easy enough to tell apart at a glance in daylight, but in poor light it’s even easier as TAG Heuer has used green Super-LumiNova for the hour hand and markers with blue Super-LumiNova anointing the minute hand. The second hand is also yellow-tipped and blue lumed.

You can have your new Aquaracer in either a 43mm case (stainless steel as standard with one Grade 2 titanium model) or a 36mm stainless case. For dial colours, you get to choose between black, blue or silver. Each has a fine-adjust stainless steel three row bracelet with a double clasp that’s a step above previous offerings.

TAG Heuer are also making 844 Grade 5 titanium-cased Aquaracer Professional 300 watches as a tribute to the original ref. 844 Heuer Monnin diver, complete with pre-aged hour markers. The standard Aquaracer models will retail for $3,000, while the Special Edition will cost $4,200. TAG Heuer.