What was your SECOND TAG Heuer?

Tagline is amazing. Sweet ad!

When I was at the AD to inquire about those 2016 Indy 500 watches, I saw for the very first time the Monaco. I tried one on and was smitten with the electric blue and unique square case. I decided to be patient and look online, found it for a significant discount and the rest is history. As many of you know, it is now my go to vacation watch.

"My" second Tag was the Mongrel:
(rather modified 980.043 in a steel case)



However, the second Tag I "acquired" was the 980.016 I bought for my gf during lockdown.

nice, is the caliber 16 reliable ?

I’ve had one issue with it, not sure if it was magnetism or vibration from cycling on the appalling streets of Seattle, but it was loosing 5 mins a day. Fixed under warranty and been fine since.

It was a present! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.

Can't wait to find out what everyone's 14th TAG Heuer was.... 😁

This is the second TAG Heuer I purchased, and it was for my wife (which she loves, BTW):


And this is the second TH I purchased for myself:

Gonna take me a little while, I'm only up to 8. 🤪

My second watch was also my second TAG. Somehow, before I had any exposure to YOU lot, our son got amped up about TAG watches, likely from TAG ads in Gentleman's Quarterly or Playboy, but anyway.....

He was my gateway to TAG.

I present a WAK2180:
Taken at everyone's favorite Big Box Store. This was a real upgrade to me, from a crummy old WAN2110, we stepped up to 500m depth rating, a ceramic bezel (that I had no idea of at the time) and a PVD Titanium case and deployant (don't think the deployant is PVD, but I haven't worn it in a couple years).

It's also the first watch I repaired (well no it's not, but that's an entire nutner episode I'll tell you sometime when I'm bored). Seems that said watch was the daily (keep in mind I only had two at the time) and sitting, running on the counter, I reached for it before the commute and "Wham!" across the room and to the floor. I had swiped for it and instead of clasping the band, I just caught it with my little finger.

No big, I thought, these things are tough; it'll take it. Not so......

The watch had stopped. 😒

Fast forward a few months when I purchased almost my first watch tool, a brand new Bergeon Jaxa. In the meantime, I had theorized that somehow (and mind you, having spent hours pouring over the 2824 tech sheet) the shock protector spring had gotten knocked clean from it's mooring and the balance no longer pivoted on both ends.

Once open, I took my brand new tweezers (I now have so many that I've no clue which was first) and grasped the balance rim, expecting it to wobble up and down. Nothing! Just turned like a balance..... Wait a minute, something's not quite right.

It seems the wheel was sprung up against a stop of some type, like a spring was forcing it up against whatever keeps it from turning around and around forever. (Actually the impulse pin against the wrong side of the lever, called "Rebanking" in watchmakers talk). I also noticed the hairspring and it wasn't even close to symetric, like someone was pushing it as far to one side as it would go.

Hmmm, this probably shouldn't be this way. So I turned the balance away from the stop and BINGO!, it started right up. Happy me, not only for having a running watch (that cost a FORTUNE) but in being able to do it myself without sending it off to TAG.

Turns out, that upon a decent shock (acceleration), it's possible that loops in the hairspring can go out of plane, and also out of round enough that an inner loop can catch the next outer loop and now everything's all wanky. In turning the balance, I moved the hairspring just enough to free the trapped coil.

The rate changed several SPD and, once I bought a timegrapher, the beat error was around 0.8ms but I corrected the rate with the regulator and the beat is probably still off.

Many years later, we bought our future SIL an Aquaracer as a reward for getting SCUBA certified and six months later, he reported it as having stopped. I said "Don't worry, I know what it is". Sure enough, a tangled hairspring. A little massage with the tweezers and off it went.

So, if you made it this far, I reward you with my WAK2180 in it's natural environment:

This comment begs the question of who's bought the most and/or who has the most TAGs.

Which are separate questions in my mind. As there are some collectors who keep buying & selling on a constant basis. Hence may have bought a huge number but may only have a handful in their current collection. Then there's others who just keep buying & buying, keeping almost everything they've bought and thus have an enormous amount in their current collection.

Very impressed that you could repair your own watch sir, not to mention the diving. Enjoy both! 👍

Umm, that would be me, guilty as charged. I must have over 20 TAGs and likely many more than that under the vintage Heuer shield.

Two.

😎