Need Help Confirming TAG Heuer 844/5 Dial Authenticity (Macro Pics Included)

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a TAG Heuer 844/5 automatic online, a watch that’s been my holy grail for quite some time. Perhaps I was a little blinded by excitement, but also reassured by the seller’s strong claims of originality and that the movement had been recently serviced, which turned out to be untrue.

For now, I'll focus on the visual inconstencies. First, the case appears to have been polished. Then there’s the lume: the hour and second hands clearly differ from the minute hand and the dial plots. I initiated a dispute yesterday, and as I highly likely need to escalate the dispute on Thursday, I’ve taken a closer look today and found more concerns.

The hour hand looks odd, possibly aftermarket or very poorly relumed. The dial surface is irregular grainy, is that normal for this model? Under magnification, the logo seems questionable: the print shows uneven thickness, slight misalignment, and some of the letter shapes look off compared to known originals. Also the rest of the printing seems odd to me, but because I noticed that more recently, so I don't have proper macro shots from it yet. It's late here and there's no good light anymore to make some.

Any feedback from experienced members would be hugely appreciated. And if anyone with a confirmed original 844/5 could share some macro shots of their dial and logo, that would be extremely helpful for comparison.

Thanks in advance!

These watches are something like 40 years old now, and they were sold with the intention of having a hard life. It's very likely that some parts won't be original, depending on what kind of life the watch has had: remember they were sold as a "low cost" active dive watch to people who couldn't justify a Sub, and were therefore people who may not have religiously followed any form of maintenance regime.

Further, they were built at a time when Heuer weren't as fastidious as they are now during production, especially on earlier models.

Just saying the above as things to keep in mind.

My 844/5 which I've owned since new (it's been back to Switzerland twice, and been opened by non-Tag personnel as well a bit more recently) has what appears to be a polished outer body, so yours may well be either original, or just very lightly tidied up (or mine's been polished in it's lifetime and I didn't notice!)

Your hour-hand does looks a little different - the "margins" around the lume on mine (ie, the visible metal outlines) are the same thickness as the outline on the minute hand - yours looks like the outlines are narrower, so it may well be a different hour hand - BUT - bear in mind what I said at the top.

The "AUTOMATIC" text on mine is not serifed, and my dial is not Tritium lumed (my dial does not have the "T" characters either side of "SWISS MADE") . Again - bear in mind that my watch has been serviced by TAG twice in it's lifetime, They used to have a reputation for just replacing anything worn, regardless of any desire from the customer to maintain originality (this before watch "investing" went mental) the second time it went, the second hand had fallen off the pillar so I expect a lot of work was done, it could even be that the entire innards were replaced as a quick fix (I can't remember what I was eventually charged, but it wasn't a huge amount), so I can't say for certain if my dial is original, or if yours is. I think the lume on yours is thicker as well (I can see a tiny shadow one or two of the photos), another clue that your dial may well be an older variant.

My dial does not appear to have a "grainy" surface, and the text in the logo is much tighter in it's box, the gap between the TAG or HEUER text and the logo outlines is much less than in your photos. Again - it could be that your dial is an older design, and mine is a newer design with a newer version of the company logo; my watch was bought in 1991 for my 18th birthday, the 844/5 had been around for quite a while at that time, or my dial was replaced during one of the services.

I think that if you want utter originality from an 844/5 then you may have your work cut out for you - but if you want a solid, reliable every day watch: then you have one. 😀

Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoroughly and for sharing the story behind your 844/5, I really appreciate that.

Still, I’d like to respectfully push back on a few points, since they touch on the core of my concern: originality. Not meant to be rude, but originality isn’t open to interpretation. If TAG Heuer replaces parts during a service, those parts are matching the original specification closely enough that visual discrepancies are either nonexistent or technically unavoidable. Thus the watch remains original. That means no mismatched lume colors between hands, no visibly asymmetric hour hand, no combinations of aged and unaged lume, and certainly no questionable inconsistencies in the dial print or layout. With decades of advancements in production precision, these kinds of inconsistencies are simply not justifiable.

This is precisely where the distinction between originality and aftermarket becomes essential. Originality refers to a watch retaining only components that either left the factory or were replaced by the manufacturer with parts that are indistinguishable in appearance and specification. In contrast, aftermarket features refer to custom components added after the watch has left the factory floor. By definition, these are parts made and installed by third parties, independent from the original brand, in this case TAG Heuer. These parts are not produced by the manufacturer and often introduce visible inconsistencies or aesthetic deviations. Therefore, when mismatched lume, inconsistent print, or asymmetrical hands are present, the watch can no longer be considered original, regardless of intent.

In your case, the fact that you’ve never noticed any differences after service shows that if any replacements were made, they were done to a very high standard, by Tag Heuer itself, which makes your watch a poor benchmark for mine.

My concern stems from visible and structural differences that can’t be explained by wear or age alone. These models are often tampered with, precisely because of their current market value. Until not too long ago, aftermarket dials for the 844/5 were freely available on eBay and other platforms. I’ve been cautious, just not cautious enough. The mismatches I now see weren’t clearly visible in the listing photos, and I also failed to verify that the included box and booklet are not correct for this model, despite the seller’s strong implication that they were original.

I'm not looking for perfection, but I cannot accept clear physical inconsistencies that prove the watch is not fully original, especially since it was explicitly sold as such. Additionally, despite the seller’s claim of recent servicing, the watch shows almost all undeniable signs of poor maintenance and internal neglect: grinding noise when wound, hesitation when starting, a dirty and oxidized crown, resistance when setting the date, a bezel that turns unevenly, visible debris under the dial, and a time deviation of approximately +44 seconds per day. Next to that, the polishing is quite severe, which isn't very clear on the previous pictures, so I included two more clear ones.

The condition and composition of the watch simply do not match the description and fall far short of the value I paid, so I'm very unhappy with it and can't settle for this.

Thanks again for your thoughtful reply.

By the way, I saw your watch in another thread. It’s a truly beautiful and rare version, which makes it highly valued and collectible. Take good care of it, especially since it totally represents your own history!

Rereading my reply, I realize I forgot to mention how helpful it is to hear that your dial isn’t grainy and that the TAG Heuer logo sits tighter in its frame. Those are very specific differences that strongly suggest a non original dial in my case. Would you mind uploading a macro shot for comparison?

I'm not quite sure where some of your reply has come from. I'm not claiming that your watch is original or unoriginal, I'm saying that due to the age of the watch and the time period in which it was produced, it is hard to say exactly what is actually the complete, full, exhausting original specification, in all aspects.

As I said, at this time Tag were just trying to satisfy demand and so things like dials could well be supplied from 2 or 3 different actual fabricators and so they may have slight differences that still match up to "dial, black faced, luminous pips" Unless you have access to the original TagHeuer fabrication spec-sheets, then the difference in the face finish (matt/grainy/flat) is a moot point, they could all be original.

I think your hour hand is not "correct", but the dial very possibly is. Do you know roughly what year yours was produced? The logo could be just the earlier version.

Also not sure why you'd think my one is in any way special.

Maybe hold off on any major decisions until sometime with more knowledge than me posts. I've just offered some things to consider, I'm merely an owner of a nice watch, not a collector.