TAG Heuer – Where Is Your Quality Control

Not quite two years ago, I created this post where I proudly announced the arrival of a long awaited addition to my watch obsession … a TAG Heuer Aquaracer Automatic. This was a beautiful watch and one I was really proud to own.

Less than a month after I received this gorgeous gift, it was in the shop for a service as it had started gaining time … 7 minutes a day!

Now, for those of you who know about watches, an automatic is one where the mechanism is powered by the movement of your body. A kinetic mechanism transfers the movement of a little counterweight into stored spring energy. This spring can be a little temperamental and is susceptible to magnetic forces so watchmakers take cares to ensure that the spring doesn’t get magnetised easily. Also, automatics have a tendency to be slightly less accurate than a quartz with maybe +/- a minute a month being a reasonable variation.

Unfortunately, either I generate a stronger magnetic field than most or I got a dodgy model because over the following 20 months (except for a 11 month period between Sep 08 and Aug 09), the watch has been returned to the service centres of both Wallace Bishop and TAG Heuer no less than 8 times for the same time gaining problem – settling on a 2 minute a day gain. Each time, the reasoning was that the mechanism was becoming magnetised – which after the first two times started to wear a little thin. Even after TAG completely replaced the movement, it still suffered the same problem … could the stainless steel case have become magnetised? Who knows?

I take care of my watches. I understand better than the average person (due to my obsession) how automatics work and the challenges they face. I was gifted an automatic watch winding case to ensure that it was always wound and protected from both magnetic fields and the elements. So, to tell me it was continuously becoming magnetised without a good reason tested my patience … but I never lost it as I was sure things would work out eventually. After all, this was a TAG that we are talking about here!

Push came to shove last week when I picked the watch back up (again) on the 8th May. I carefully placed it as far from anything in the house that could cause a problem (even left it out of its case) and placed my Seiko Sportura (that has been my consistent time measure)within viewing distance, set the Aquaracer to the exact time as the Seiko and ‘watched’ both. Without fail, over the next 3 days, the TAG started to gain time – this time only a moderate minute a day … but it was still a significant gain.

I was crestfallen – the Aquaracer had to go.

Now, many of you would probably say that I have been a push-over and that it should’ve been rectified ages ago … and you may be right. But, and I must state this, the guys at Wallace Bishop Garden City have been excellent and were always quite accommodating. There was nothing to be gained from getting cranky … and I was never sure that it wasn’t something I was doing. But no-one could explain what was going wrong.

Anyhoo, after a phone call to Wallace Bishop, the manager (who has been consistently helpful – thank you Jamie) contacted the State TAG rep and a decision was made to exchange the watch for a brand new TAG of equivalent value … but it had to be a quartz movement … I just had to come in and select it. I thought this was a very reasonable outcome and one I hoped would close this unfortunate experience and I could re-establish my love of the brand.

So, off I toddle to the store on Saturday, make a difficult decision to stick with the value and not add an additional $200 to get a nicer model and find the watch I would like to wear. A new (apparently only out 3 months) Aquaracer Chronograph with Date that has a quartz movement. So there I am, aglow with the type of vibe that a new watch wearing person gets when they put a lovely timepiece on their wrist.

Getting it home, the first thing I do is to reset the date and chronograph hands … that were slightly out of whack (not unusual) … after reading the manual of course. However, trouble was afoot – despite my best efforts and instructional guides, the chronograph hands just would not re-set. So I ring the store, pop in to see the guys and establish that it wasn’t me, the watch is not well.

Less than 2 hours into owning the new timepieces, it is already on its way into the Service Centre. I would have taken the option for a replacement … but they didn’t have one in stock and in the time it would take to get one in (about the same time for a service) I couldn’t guarantee that the replacement would also not be stuffed.

So I ask you, am I just the unluckiest TAG owner … or has TAG sacrificed its quality control on lower end models to provide the resources for their highly acclaimed, highly expensive top-end pieces?

Would I recommend a TAG? Right now, no! But the weight of experience and good reviews seems to point to my trials and tribulations being the exception rather than the rule.

I have sent en email to TAG Australia and hope that sometime soon, there will be light at the end of the TAG tunnel. Sufficed to say, if I do get the chance to head into the stratospheric levels of the watch world, IWC, Breitling, Oris and Omega will be on my list … way ahead of the similar TAG’s. though, I must say, the TAG Grand Carrera is a very tasty bit of kit.