Of course luxury is all about perceived perception. Oddly for me I’d say it’s the opposite. Every Aquaracer I’ve handled and even the new professionals feel no where as refined as Tudor. Case finishing, sloppy bezel action, awful claps, (let’s not talk about movements).
The new Aquaracer clasp on the 36mm and 43mm is great, though the clasp on the Ice King was crap apparently
Then you have the fact 50% of the brands portfolio F1s & Aquaracers are quartz, & for the price they are charging - it’s shocking. It’s also shocking how much they are RRP for selita movements considering most people I speak to want 10-20% of RRP if purchasing.
Yeah, but.... ALL companies charge what they can get away with. If Oris could charge more they would. I agree TAGs prices are high but people obviously pay them. All Swiss brands' prices are hilarious, but people pay them. It's all brand recognition. If Omega had Rolex brand recognition their prices would be going up. People are moaning about Rolex prices going up 10% but the demand is so high that who can blame them?
As for the quartz thing, TAG as an
entry level luxury brand need quartz in their line up, if all the F1s and Aquaracers were mechanical then they wouldn't have anything under £2000 - then they aren't entry level anymore. Besides, not everyone who wants a nice watch wants a mechanical watch, we as watch enthusiasts assume everyone who buys an expensive watch is an enthusiast but I think that's way off target. But if you are charging £3-4000 for your £50 mechanical watch you have to position your quartz offering in line with that otherwise it looks silly. Do I think the orange F1 is worth £1300, not really no. But I paid it. And I paid an extra £135 for a rubber strap.
Maybe Tudor as a brand at RRP are too cheap, but they’ve stolen the market segment form Tag & Breitling and will increase their RRP soon to what Rolex were at.
Relative to TAG yes they probably are, but like you say, I can see Tudor prices rising steadily and leaving TAG behind, and soon this problem will be solved and you guys will be hating on Tudor for milking it.
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Maybe Tag need 2 strategies - Heuer branding for a vintage line - Monaco, Carreras, Autavias. TH for modern stuff - 02 movements, Aquaracer etc. Move away from selita would help, but also not to push their RRP to much. If the Aquaracer starts competing with Seamasters that’s crazy, one is almost modern & advanced, one is full modern & advanced.
In a way that would make sense, but all that is so confused now.... I don't think there's a straight answer. I'd wager TAG sell just as many shiny, thick, H02 Monacos as they do matt dial Calibre 11s, otherwise they wouldn't be moving in that direction. Carrera is a mess, and we've basically got Heuer branded Heritage models. As for the Autavia... since they don't know what it is anymore maybe it's best they don't brand it Heuer and upset the people here?
Also could be a big market to redo the F1 as the cheaper fun part of the brand, can think only the orange one recently does this.
I can agree here, the plastic F1 was a huge success back in the day and I think if they made something similar today it could be another smash hit - if it was in the £6-700 region. But TAG is trying to raise its prices overall and become more luxury again, so I don't see this happening. Maybe they could have a cheap range just called 'TAG' without the Heuer part, like a baby brand? But I don't know, I think they would say the perception would be that TAG is cheap and they don't want that. Look how many people hate the Moonswatch for dragging Omega down...