Tag Heuer Aquaracer Diving/Racing Watches Review

Tag Heuer's Aquaracer could be the brand's most inspired collection when it comes to versatility of design. It vies for supremacy in all aspects of TG's watchmaking, except when comes to the bracelets, where the crown unconditionally belongs to the Link collection. This versatility continues in the engineering department, where the Aquaracer is made to combine digital and analog display on one dial. This collection veers strongly towards sports design, although some models can demonstrate casual or dressy characteristics.

Design

Water covers more than two-thirds of our planet's surface – and this fact is symbolically reproduced in the Aquaracer.

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There's something sprawling about this collection's design; the watches sprawl from the dials to the bezels and to the straps, reflecting unity that can be found only in the rhythmic movement of the waves. Rhythm plays an important role in the Aquaracer: on the most iconic model it starts as a vertical linear guilloche on the face, then stabilizes, still linear, on the circular bezel, and eventually spreads into a square motif on the strap. From within the watch, the visual rhythm is governed by the rhythm of time.

Aquaracer's additional important characteristics comprise the multi-angular bezel, slightly echoing Audemars Piguet Royal Oak's trademark octagonal shape, and, in some models, the use of bright yellow or orange on the faces – a straightforward but effective way to facilitate legibility.

Aquaracer brings together several of Tag Heuer's technological achievements, compiling such complications as the chronograph, grand date (large double aperture), day-date, and alarm, and employing both purely mechanical and quartz calibers. Most notably, some models combine analog and digital displays, assigning the former for the main timing function, and the latter for chronograph and calendar utilities.

Utilities

Tag Heuer equipped Aquaracer with a set of standard but indispensable features: uni-rotational bezel with metallic protrusions for ease of operation, double safety on the buckle to prevent accidental release, water resistance up to 300 meters, anti-glare sapphire crystal glass, and screwed, protected crown.

Ladies

Aquaracer Ladies effectively tones down the extra adrenaline manifestations by abandoning almost all of the large Arabic numeral markings, and substituting them with diamonds. Additional materials include mother-of-pearl (a choice that suggests itself, considering its aquatic origin), and gold coating on the two-tone models.