The rarely seen Aquaracer WAY101B.BA0746 : a love letter to the WAY series

When Tag Heuer redesigned the Aquaracer back in april 2021, scraping almost instantly all WAYXXXX references in the process, I was disappointed.

The new watch, with references starting with WBP, is a lot more generic than its predecessor. You could say what you want about the WAY Aquaracer, but even when fitted with a Pepsi bezel and a cyclop, it was still doing its own thing. It was a very unique, distinctive & original design.

This 101B is interesting because it part ways with the cyclop and the ridged lines on the dial. Two elements (borrowed from other brands) this design never needed to shine. The touch of color on the bezel is also not borrowed elsewhere (no, it's not the same red as Tudor's). A few pictures of mine below :


The bracelet was also unique in its own way, with hexa-shaped links and "Tag Heuer" simply engraved on the clasp.

Overall, I think this design might have been too idiosyncratic for some, maybe too agressive, which led to the brand massively softening the looks of the Aquaracer for the next generation watches. I personnally loved the Aquaracer for being unique and agressive.

Here's what traits the WBP redesign lost, in favor of more generic/lesser elements :

- Triangle indexes with dual lume at 6-9-12

(now octagonal indexes, appears round from a distance, no dual lume)

- Blue Super Luminova BGW9 (now green, I assume C7/C5, and doesn't last as long)

- "LOGO" hour and minute hands, with dual lume (now generic sword hands, no dual lume)

- Lume pip at 12 (now lumed triangle at 12 and nothing on steel bezels watches)

- Bracelet with hexa-shaped links, Tag Heuer engraved letters (Now generic flat link bracelet, Tag Heuer logo no text version engraved on clasp which is rather reminiscent of the Tudor shield).

- 300M of W.R for all watches across the line-up (steel bezel refs. have been downgraded to 200)

Overall, I understand the decision of the brand to redirect the Aquaracer line towards a larger audience by softening the design.

After all, a product liked by many will sell more than one loved by a few.

I'm just sad to see one of my favorite watch designs of all time being up(down?)graded to something often mocked as "poor men's Seamaster" , because the previous gen was nothing like that.

Let me know what you think below, alongside your favorite references of ARs no matter which gen !

Good day.

Love this one for sure. I don’t see it as overly aggressive though, nor the next series as particularly soft.

I do get your point though. It’s all about nostalgia for the older model which you love. I totally get that.

When I say older, I just mean from release date, as this could easily sell as a fresh current model. Very cool.

Excuse the blurry handheld image, but thought you might enjoy the dual lume…

Oh. So there is dual lume on WBPs indeed. I stand corrected. Yeah the orange diver alongside the night diver are my favorites WBPs. Great pick !

I disagree, I'd rather have the latest release from a brand I love, but here i genuinely think the design went backwards somehow.
Nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

Hey, you might have taken my point the wrong way. Wasn’t meaning it as negative or being solely nostalgia, just meant that it seems to me that there’s an element of nostalgia in why you even thought about it to start with.

That was just my feeling from the warmth in your post. Nothing not to like about genuine opinions like that.

There’s been a fair bit of discussion around this, the majority like the low-polygon-count Aquaracer. Somewhere here there is a thread with a long running debate on the WBP vs seamaster vs AR dna.

It’s great to see a WAY AR, I was put off these due to the aluminium bezel, as I worried it would damage easily, but the bezel on my bb58 is un marked so I think this was unfounded.

The reason your dial doesn't have the slats is because it's quartz.
40mm WBP Aquaracer don't have lumed bezels because they are 'adventure' watches.... not dive watches.
I'm with you that the design of the WAY series is nicer, but it is also true that the WBP feels better made.

I’d love to get my hands on one to see how it feels, but my AD is a shark. It’s always hard getting out of there without a watch, and I just cannot afford that right now lol.

One of the things that has held me back from newer TAG models (besides the price tag and size) is that they don’t feel as well put together for the money. I keep hearing that the WBP models are a step up, but I have to go see them in person. I just can’t get behind the look though. I hate the hour markers and the wave dial. The 40mm models are much more my speed, but im still not 100% sold. I don’t want a monocoque cased watch, especially if it’s quartz.

Yes... but to be honest there aren't that many quartz WBP's and probably future models will all be solar anyway