La Chaux-de-Fonds-based TAG Heuer — the most accessibly priced luxury watch brand within the LVMH Group — launched a new Aquaracer dive watch this week.
The Aquaracer Professional 300 Date has been redesigned in a new stainless steel case that measures 42 mm x 12 mm — that fits a broad range of wrists perhaps most notably because of its new 48 mm lug-to-lug proportions. Case diameter is always an important factor, as is case thickness, however, lug-to-lug should not be underestimated.
With a large screw-down crown, solid screw-in caseback, and a depth rating of 300 meters, the Aquaracer Professional 300 is as its name suggests. There’s no helium escape valve as you would find on a Seamaster 300M, Tudor Pelagos, Rolex Sea-Dweller, Rolex Deepsea, or TAG Heuer’s own Aquaracer Professional 1000 Superdiver — but it’s doubtful the target audience (or most normal humans), would need one considering a helium escape valve is only useful for serious saturation diving.
TAG Heuer’s design team gave the new dial a wavy motif, large applied indices, large steel hour, minute, and central second hands, and all are coated with generous amounts of lume (blue emitting on minute and second hand, green for hour hand and hour markers) — for maximum visibility, in or out of the water. A circular date window sits at 6 o’clock in place of an hour marker. The printed TAG Heuer shield logo sits below “AQUARACER” at 12 o’clock and “OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED, CHRONOMETER, 300m / 1000 ft” is stamped at 6.
A stainless steel unidirectional 0-60 count up dive bezel with a ceramic insert matching the dial (black, blue, or green), along with a sapphire crystal, and either a rubber strap (black – Ref. WBP5110.FT6257 or blue – Ref. WBP5111.FT6259) or stainless steel dive bracelet (black – Ref. WBP5110.BA0013, blue – Ref. WBP5111.BA0013, green – Ref. WBP5116.BA0013) complete the new Aquaracer Professional 300 Date lineup.
Powering the three hands and date wheel is TAG Heuer’s caliber Th31-00 in-house 4Hz automatic movement that has an 80-hour power reserve, a skeletonized TAG Heuer shield rotor, and that’s been chronometer certified to a rate of -4/+6 by COSC.
Retail is $3,600 on a rubber strap or $3,800 on a bracelet. Unless you dislike bracelets, for just $200 more that’s the way to go because you can always add a rubber strap later more easily and cheaply than adding a bracelet after the fact.
Learn more at TAG Heuer.
Photo by TAG Heuer.
