New TAG owner - Thanks for the Info!

Hi all,

I just bought my first TAG Heuer watch yesterday -- an S/el, model WG111A, which I have found in the 1997 catalog. It is the plain blue-faced quartz watch with date, and an all-stainless appearance. Band is BA0423-GO, which seems to be a uniformly semi-matte finish stainless. I can't see any distinction among the links with regard to finish -- possibly the finish has simply been worn off with age, but truly nothing looks exactly polished, and nothing looks exactly brushed. The case looks somewhat more matte than the band, but the band certainly isn't shiny-polished.

My watch is well-used, but not abused. All of the links are in good shape, don't seem too loose. It fits my wrist well -- a bit on the tight side, but not to a restrictive degree. The only notable flaws (aside from normal wear and tear) are visible deterioration/darkening of the luminous parts of the dial. The hands, fortunately, do not show any of this darkening and are in great shape. All in all, I am very happy with how it looks -- very classic and not at all dated like a gold/stainless model would be. I also think that I prefer the blue face to any others, with the possible exception of the white.

I purchased this watch at a pawnshop for only $250 with tax. I am very happy about this -- I have wanted a TAG for a long time, but have never been able to justify it (I hadn't worn a watch in many years until I got an Apple Watch about 6 months ago -- which I wear regularly, mostly for fitness tracking reasons). This TAG will mostly just be brought out for occasions where I want to dress up.

Really I am glad to have it simply as a relief of the pressure of wanting one for so long. Occasionally I would debate buying one at a store or pawnshop or whatever, but they are pretty expensive for something that I won't really use much. At just $250, this purchase was a no-brainer, and now I finally have one, so the temptation won't be there the next time I find a "steal" at $500 or whatever. So I doubt I will be collecting many more, but I am glad to finally be a member of the club and to own a TAG Heuer. I will probably send it off for a cleaning/overhaul sometime in the next year or so.

Interestingly, the watch was made in the late 1990's (20 years ago) which was when I was in high school. I had a Fossil watch at the time (model AM-3111) which had a very similar blue face and a very similar stainless case and band. (Also a very functional LCD at the bottom part of the face, which could be used for alarms, date/day, stopwatch, etc.)

Mostly I just wanted to post in order to say "Thank You" to you guys for posting all of the information on these watches. I was seriously surprised to see the low price and thought for sure it must be a fake. Thanks to the information I found on this forum, I was convinced that it was real and to go ahead and buy it. I have attached some photos although I know this is a pretty lame watch compared to most owned in this forum.

Hi wt_guy.
I for one don't think it's lame at all, I have always wanted an s/el myself, but for various reasons it hasn't happened yet. Not everyone can justify spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on a watch, and how brilliant that you got this at such a great price. As it's 'worn in' you shouldn't feel too self-conscious when you are wearing it, the way I do when I wear my non-everyday TAGs.
Tell me though, what size is your wrist and does the clasp feel comfortable? This is something that worries me about older bracelets and puts me off buying an 80s/90s model. Also what diameter is the watch? Most s/els I've seen for sale seem to be a bit on the dinky side...

Congrats for the new watch !

Agreed, it's not something that I would worry about when wearing it out -- I won't have to pamper it. It looks like watch that's been worn regularly for 20 years, so yes, looking at it it is an older watch, and isn't it nice for that? Watches are made to be worn, and I'm glad not to have to question whether I should wear it because I don't want to get it dinged up or something. (Although I'm not going to wear 2 watches, and my Apple Watch will stay on my wrist most days... and I'm going to avoid water with it until I can get it serviced and the seals replaced.) It's also fairly subtle -- as I mentioned, it looks a lot like my Fossil from the same era, and it would take a person who's interested in watches to note that it's anything special.

I just measured my wrist, and it's roughly 7-3/8". There are 5 full band links on the bottom of the watch, and 6 on the top of the watch. (So 11 total, not including the 2 half links attached to the clasp.) The micro-adjustment is on its longest setting, and the watch is fairly tight on my wrist. If I shake my wrist, it doesn't move at all. But it's not so tight as to feel constricted -- it's about the same tightness as I typically wear my Apple Watch. However, all things being equal, I would probably prefer to have an extra link in the band, and to take up some of the slack with the micro-adjust -- give me just a little bit more wiggle room. If I gain weight, it will be too tight. As far as comfort of the clasp, I simply don't notice it. It feels great. I can definitely forget that I'm wearing this watch, particularly if it is under a shirt cuff.

As for size -- how does this get measured? Across the crystal, it seems to be exactly 1 inch (25mm). Diagonally across the back (excluding the crown or strap lugs -- trying to get the most circular diameter of the watch case), it's roughly 1-7/16 inches (36.5mm). (Sorry, I do not have a mm-denominated measuring tool handy.) The "1" in the model number seems to indicate that this is the largest/men's size of this model. It is roughly the same size (in terms of width) as my 42mm Apple Watch -- if I lay the S/el over the face of the Apple Watch, and line up the left sides precisely, the crown of the S/el protrudes distinctly past the casing and crown of the Apple Watch. According to information that I found online, the 42mm Apple Watch is roughly 36mm wide, so that all adds up. The strap lugs on the S/el line up almost exactly with the top-to-bottom height of the Apple Watch as well -- so, basically, if I set my TAG on top of the 42mm Apple Watch, the TAG pretty much perfectly fits the rectangular space defined by the Apple Watch -- it touches the top, bottom, left side, and the crown protrudes past the right side.

Overall I think that it is a good size for an average male wrist.

Thanks for the welcome fellas! 😀

Nice. I have the S/el Chronometer (WG5114-PO) which has a similar (the same??) colour dial. I also bought it second hand.

Calibre 11 has a great write up on the S/el here: https://www.calibre11.com/ultimate-guide-tag-heuer-sel/, which is worth reading. There is a good photograph of the model I have about half way down.