2023 TAG Heuer Monaco Night Driver (CBL2181)

Oh wow!!! You're right. Thanks for pointing it out. Definitely sourcing these from Japan seems to be the sensible thing to do.

I don’t disagree compared to the increases the past 3 years. I was lucky with mine, wasn’t much more than this - I wasn’t going to pay retail.

The Japanese Yen has weakened dramatically over the past few years compared to some other currencies (dollar, pound, euro etc.)

I remember about 10 years ago when it was more expensive to buy things in Japan. A Monaco priced around 500,000 Yen was roughly like paying $6500 USD. Now days a Monaco retailing for about 1,000,000 Yen is roughly $6600 USD.

For the locals, TAG's prices in their constant currency have inflated just as much as we feel it has. But because the Yen is so weak now, buying from Japan is an easy way to get a good price for foreigners.

I agree that the retail for this watch is a joke. I do some home economics in these cases, so bear with me here.

- Consider the launch price for the H02 Monacos (say the blue dial CBL2111) in 2019, which was 6k USD, so about £5000.

- A basic inflation based on CPI would peg the same watch to be at £6100 in 2023, which is not far from the £6500 that the watch retails for right now. I'm not considering inflation index for luxury goods which would be higher.

- Now consider an additional 10% charge for the limited edition and titanium body, so this would get the watch at ~£6700 - which equates to a 20% discount from the present RRP (£8300 - 20% = £6640)

Of course if one says that the initial launch price of the H02 Monacos was ridiculous in the first place then, the above arguement is null and void - but you have to start somewhere

That's why I say that anything < £6500 is a great price for the watch IMO. Personally I was hoping for a discount of 20% for the watch, but I like to see it as that I ended up paying slightly more for that single digit novelty.

I started getting the itch of trying out different straps on the Night Driver, so managed to get the OEM one out and tried a couple that I had already. I think the Carrera x Porsche strap (FC6492) would go best with the watch (the one in the pic is a cheap copy I got to try out the look). I also think the double stitched strap could also look good if we had a white & grey stitch. Thoughts?

How strange, I got my Porsche strap out last night to try this but didn’t actually get around to it. Will try at the weekend! Great minds!

Please share the pics when you put on the strap. I'll either buy the original one or get a custom strap made in the same style - either way it will cost a bit money, which I don't want to put in if the look is not that great

No problem, will post a photo this weekend.

On the Porsche strap

Did the same this morning with my ND. 4 rows of white stitching did look a bit out of place, but definitely a worthy alternate strap

The Porsche strap is ok. But for my taste, I prefer its OEM strap or the strap from the CAW211Y.