2024 KITH Heuer Formula 1 re-issue quartz watches

It didn't take the flippers very long -- there are Kith|Heuer Formula 1s all over ebay and chrono24. The cheapest one I saw was only twice RRP.

It'll be interesting to see how the flippers make out. I strongly dislike flippers, so I'm hoping they crash-and-burn, but it probably won't happen.

It will certainly be interesting, considering most people already think the releases are overpriced at RRP, let alone doubling that!

Just how strong is the FOMO Hype, that’s the real question.

With regards to pricing and flipping, here's another very telling excerpt from that Esquire article that @Jeff Stein brought to our attention.
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Nicholas Biebuyck: It’s a very, very tricky balance to find. On the one hand, you're right: there is a chance to be very democratic with this and make tens of thousands of the things and probably still satisfy the market. But I think there's a couple of things to factor in. You’ve got to produce an incredibly vast number to have a scale of economy on a watch like this. And as I think it's difficult for us to go out and make 100,000 of the things and have this challenge where, on the one hand, people are excited to get it. On the other hand, there’s the problem that all of a sudden, they’re worth basically nothing and they don't maintain their mystique. The other thing that we were having conversations about was the pricing. Where to position it. We didn’t know how people would react to the $1,500 price point. We’re not ones to make one-to-one heritage reissues like other brands. This is really a test. We’ve done all the development work. Let’s see what the future holds. If there's really a massive demand what's to stop us from doing another collection of five different coloured SKUs in two years’ time? I’m not saying anything’s been decided. But, in a month’s time, if these watches are selling for 10 grand or whatever, we might have realised that we should probably do some more. What makes the prices go really high is when people do not want to sell. When they fall in love with them and they want them to stick in their collection. I’m fairly confident that they will be trading above retail. The question is: by how much? [On Saturday night, StockX had the watches listed for a range of prices, starting at £2,290 for the red/black/eggshell and stainless steel model, up to £5,857 for the 'Hawaii'/ Katayama-inspired edition - voted top in Esquire's own ranking. The prices for the 1980s originals on eBay hadn't changed, meanwhile. You could still pick one of those up for around £300.]
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My takeaway from this is that TAG Heuer no longer has the factory capability to pump out the quantities that a Swatch can do. Hence rather than make it non-limited and priced more affordably, they chose to partner with KITH with a more expensive & exclusive approach.

It also seems they fully expect and want the FOMO to drive high aftermarket prices. But this quote by Nicholas is the key part: "What makes the prices go really high is when people do not want to sell".

Collectors like me, Hubert and Jeff may never sell. I certainly have no intention. But from what I'm seeing, many who lined up for one did so with the specific intention to flip.

Woohoo!

PS, the Esquire article might be most informative vehicle ever. Lots in there.

Actually, this is another area where the new model is improved. The original straps were meant to be cut and measure 15 cm on the long end. The new strap is shorter at 13 cm and doesn't need to be cut for those with slim wrists.


I wear all of my originals on uncut straps and the ends stick out far too much. Looks a little silly but I don't care, don't want to cut them. With the new one, it sticks out slightly but not bad at all. Perfectly wearable and normal looking in comparison.

The old one looks better, the blue is deeper and suits the watch better.

And the signature on the glass is super cool too.

I agree with you. Also, the Katayama has white hands which are way easier to read and the white TAG Heuer logo stands out more too. It's actually a good thing that the logo is black on the Hawaii, I rarely ever notice "KITH Heuer" or "Just Us" when looking at the dial. Ha, ha.

It might not be apparent in the photo, but the Katayama's green and yellow are a slightly darker too, also the strap is a brighter red. The Hawaii has a red dot on the bezel triangle, which I don't care for as much either. So, there are enough differences to where I feel it's not an exact clone.

My intent is to use my Hawaii as my daily fun & water sports watch. It's much more comfortable due to its rubber strap and so light compared to my stainless steel watches. I'm sure my old vintage F1s are no longer 200m water resistant due to their old gaskets, I don't even like wearing them in the rain. I can be carefree with the Hawaii.

Esquire has a bunch of articles on these watches. Here's their ranking of the 10:
Every Kith x Tag Heuer Formula 1 Watch, Ranked (esquire.com)

I agonized about whether to get one or not. This release is exactly what I had hoped for, but the branding was a near showstopper for me, more so than the price. At the 11th hour I decided to go for it, but it would be either Tokyo or Hawaii or nothing at all. Ultimately, I chose Hawaii because Tokyo is almost identical to the original colorway, except for the pin stripes on the dial.

I also like New York and Toronto. Out of the steel bracelet variants, LA is my favorite.

What's your ranking of the 10 or which ones are you favorites?

Michael, I am intrigued by the fact that you seemingly just went to the Kith store and selected the watch you wanted. Was that the case? I thought these would be hard to get, and yet it seemed like you had the pick of whatever you wanted.

I also thought, perhaps Time & Tide's fault actually, that the watches were only being sold in the store they were named after, whereas that clearly isn't the case. I think in a way that would actually have been cooler... but clearly would slow down the sales.

It's interesting to see the Esquire ranking, I actually think the TAG ones (blue and green) are at the top end for me, probably because they have steel cases. I think it might be surprising to see which two have come bottom with the COCO. One is kinda obvious but the other one, not so much..

Like you I quite like the Red one, and also the blue bezel/white dial looks pretty nice too. If only they were TAG Heuer branded.

I must say though, seeing Jeff's pictures, although the watches have steel cases, the bezel still being plastic is a bit... mmm. Don't know if I would pay £1350 for that.

Los Angeles (blue bezel, white dial, steel bracelet) is top for me. Would obviously prefer TAG branding but I could live with that. Not sure I could live with the Kith & Kin and Just Us in that awful font, however.

Yeah that engraving is truly terrible.

Every YouTuber trying to milk the „outrage“ is getting a bit old by now, right? 😁

Meanwhile, Richemont brands dropping their RRPs is the real story of early 2024. And while TAG deserves flak for the FOMO strategy (or I’m just completely hermetic to it…) vilifying them for the F1 prices is not very logical, IMHO.

It's an absolute gift to them hey, and TAG should have expected this. But I think they think all publicity is good publicity so let em at it.

Kith website showing all sold out now...