My Tag Heuer 44mm Grande Date video review

[postur]

Tag Heuer Formula 1 Grande Date review - YouTube

[postur]

Here is a writen review for those who dont like video reviews




Tag Heuer Formula 1 Grande Date.

Super short review conclusion :
A very solid and clean looking watch, with a very nice bezel action and quality bracelet.
Lume is disapointing.
Quartz watch with subdial for seconds.


Case
The case of the tag is 44 mm wide, and it has a stainless steel construction with a 120 click unidirectional bezel.
The watch is 13 mm heigh and weighs 176 grams with the stainless steel strap.

The watch feels very heavy and solid, and just for fun the caseback lid it self is 25 grams.

The case seems to be brushed stainless steel, and picks up less scratches than most watches I have used.

The case has a "Tag Heuer" engraving on the side of the case with black text, in my opinion this suits this watch quite well.



Bezel
The bezel is a 120 click unidirectional bezel and it has a very nice and solid clicking action and aligns perfectly with the markers on the watch dial. The numbers on the bezel are raised, and gives the bezel a distinctive look.
Because of the shape of the bezel and the raised numbering the bezel is extremely easy to grip, even wearing gloves. This also makes the bezel easier to be moved by mistake, but it has only happened a couple of times in my use of the watch.

Crown
The Crown is black and has a raised Tag hauer logo and is a screw down crown. When its popped out you pull up one lever to adjust the date and another level to adjust the time.



Dial
I really like the dial on the F1, it is black with white lettering, and even the Tag logo is white.
The small sub dial has the seconds hand, something I usually do not prefer but got use to very soon. The seconds hand does not hit the markers dead on but close enough.
There is a large date window at the 6 o'clock position on the sub dial, very useful and unobtrusive.


Crystal
The Tag has a very nice flat sapphire crystal with AR coating

Caseback
The watch has a screw down case back with the Tag logo and some basic information regarding the watch.



Bracelet
The included braclet is a stainless steel one with a locking clasp with a safety. There are three micro adjustment positions on the bracelet, and a puch pin system for adding and removing entire links. There are no half links in the bracelet, but due to the small size of the individual links, that is not an issue.
The bracelet clasp has a very reassuring click to it.



Lugs
The lug width is 22mm, the only issue I have had with the lugs are that the lugs are very close to the case making it hard to use the watch with quality NATO straps due to their thickness. This is probably not the watch for you if you enjoy frequently changing nato or zulu straps. Its possible, but more difficult than with many other watches.

Lume
The lume on the F1 is disappointing. The lume on the dial is not too bad and lasts for a few hours, the lume on the hands is a different story.
The hands on the F1 are skeleton hands, and the only lume on them is on the very tips of the hands. The lume on the hands becomes difficult to see as soon as 30-60 minutes and is not usable after a couple of hours.


Final conclusion
When considering the movement I could be tempted to believe that this watch is overpriced, since it has a pretty standard quartz movement instead of a mechanical movement. However the case, bezel and bracelet seem to be of very good quality, and certainly feel very solid and reassuring.
The watch sits low but still has wrist presence due to the 44 mm diameter.
The skeleton hands really fit the watch dial, and even look so good that I could almost forgive the watch for the disappointing lume.

[Isdaako]

Great review. Thanks for posting.

[IronDave]

You're good at doing these quick reviews (Also love the lume shots!)

[postur]

Thanks a lot Isdaako and IronDave, great to see that its appreciated :)

There are a few reviews lined up for publishing within the next 30 days so Im still working on more :)