The TAG Heuer Enthusiast blog.

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I got to about 400 and lost count..... but there are a lot more Carreras (700+)
 
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And for the sake of clarity I'm not counting Connecteds as Carreras, even though they are...
 
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Valuable work you're doing for the collector community Brobert, very impressive.

Aquaracer was what first lit my love for TAG Heuer, if I was a mega billionaire I would collect Aquaracers, there are so many sexy versions.
 
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In addition, the (WAB style) Aquaracer appears in the 2004/2005 Catalogue as the 2000 Aquaracer, so it seems that originally it was intended to be another variation on the 2000 theme (2000 Sports, 2000 Exclusive, 2000 Tristar, etc) but then they dropped the 2000 name and just let the model continue as the Aquaracer. Maybe they just figured the 2000 name had had it's day and the Aquaracer sounded a lot cooler and a lot more 21st Century? Or maybe LVMH wanted to cut the ties to the pre-LVMH days and getting rid of the 2000 nomenclature was one more way of doing so.


It is somewhat curious as to why and how the 2000 was renamed the Aquaracer. Like you, I just figured the marketing minds at TAG felt that Aquaracer sounded cooler. However, back in 1999 there was the Searacer, which was just another 2000 variant. So why didn't they stick with that name?

Similarly, in 1999 the S/el was renamed Link. In this case, it coincided with the introduction of the more squared off link shape, compared to rounded shape of the S/el links. Nevertheless, I think they could've continued with the name S/el, but my guess again is the name was changed for marketing reasons.
 
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I guess Searacer was only used for two very specific watches (both Regatta Chronos), but yeah... to me the Link was more of a redesign. I doubt old Sel's were ever sold as Links, whereas for years TAG just rolled over old 2000 models and labelled them Aquaracers.

Can you imagine if they turned around today and said, yeah this 'Carrera' name's had it's day lets call it the 2100?

I did hear a rumour from a good source that the Aquaracer name was going to be changed when the new watches came out, but it clearly didn't happen. Apparently they wanted to make it an 'outdoors' watch and get away from the 'water' theme.

Would have been interesting to know how they would have celebrated 40 years of the 2000...
 
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Perhaps the reason they didn't stick with "Searacer" was because some might have felt it was too similar to Omega's "Seamaster", which pre-dates the 2000 by several decades.
 
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Perhaps the reason they didn't stick with "Searacer" was because some might have felt it was too similar to Omega's "Seamaster", which pre-dates the 2000 by several decades.
Yes, good point. Bit too close that...
 
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The new 'FEATURE: Our Favourite Aquaracers' was so much fun to read. Awesome blog Rob!!!
 
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The new 'FEATURE: Our Favourite Aquaracers' was so much fun to read. Awesome blog Rob!!!
I enjoyed that too. Fun stuff Rob! 👍
 
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The new 'FEATURE: Our Favourite Aquaracers' was so much fun to read. Awesome blog Rob!!!

Great post! It’s made me remember how many great aquaracers I don’t own yet😁