CAU2012.FT6038
I know, it's a bit out of the blue, or maybe it isn't... maybe you picked up on my underlying dissatisfaction? Either way, it's happened, though I must admit it happened kind of quickly. Some people buy watches with the intention of 'flipping' them at a later date and some people enter into every purchase committing to a life-long relationship with no intention to sell. Generally speaking when I buy a watch my intention is that I am going to keep it for a very long time. Indeed, looking at my current eight piece collection, there are five watches that I have absolutely no intention of selling, unless absolutely necessary: Microtimer, F1 Kirium, Aquagraph, Carrera 45mm Heuer01 Skeleton and my Aquaracer Calibre S, and of the other three, I really don't see me selling two of them (the last one is another story, more on which soon perhaps...).
I have sold two watches previously, my first pre-owned TAG was purchased from eBay when I was a bit naive and didn't realise just how small some older watches were. Consequently my first 2000 Series lasted barely a month before I had moved it on and bought a larger one. That one lasted a year, before I sold it for roughly what I paid (plus £140 for a rubber strap I bought and sold with it), again because I felt it was too small. Since then I've bought seven more watches and sold none, until now.
I must have first noticed the CAU2012 in about 2014/15, because it was a watch that I was looking for for a long time. Every time I went to one of the outlets I would hope to find it, and every time I went into a jewellers I would look for it and ask if they could they get it. But by then it was already out of stock everywhere and nobody could get it. Then of course I finally found it on eBay, but I was wary of paying £1650 for a second hand watch from eBay and what I really wanted was to be able to try it on, then when I did find one pre-owned in a jewellers it was even more money and it was miles away...
So the fateful day came when I visited Bicester, I was actually going to buy the yellow dial Calibre S Aquaracer (the one I now own), which I had seen there a couple of days before. Only since my visit on the Saturday, lo and behold, guess what had appeared in the shop. Finally, there it was, in all it's orange and black glory, the CAU2012!
Three years of trying to find this damn watch clouded my judgement I guess, and I purchased it on the spot. I was so excited to finally get my hands on it, but the honeymoon was short lived. Immediately it became clear that the clasp was so badly designed that I couldn't wear it, it irritated my wrist really badly and in hindsight I wish I'd just taken the watch back and argued the toss. But of course, I'd been here before with my everyday F1 and I knew there was a work around. The only problem was, the work around wasn't that great. The problem was, by the time I'd ordered a BT0717 strap and waited for it to arrive the watch was already five weeks old, too late to try and take it back for sure...
I imagined the BT0717 strap would be just like the BT0714, just 2mm wider. But it wasn't, it was much thicker, much less flexible and much less comfortable to boot, plus it didn't look nearly as cool as the rubber strap the watch originally came with. So not only was it not a great work-around, it also made the watch look a bit cheaper too. Not good...
My other huge issue with this £2500 watch (not what I paid for it but that's irrelevant), was that while the hands have rather too much lume on them (and that's not something I thought was possible) the hour markers have none at all, just orange paint. There's also no lume pip at the 12 position, so telling the time in the dark is pretty much impossible. I say the hands have too much lume because while the photo above gives the impression of nice silver hands, in truth all you can see is the white lume and in all honesty the longer I lived with this watch the more I came to hate those hands. They just look stupid, and the one thing that might have rescued that was lume on the markers. Personally I don't think it's too much to expect lumed markers and a well designed clasp on a watch that costs £2500.
So as I gradually fell out of love with the watch, I wore it less and less. I guess I was already thinking about moving it on, and once that started I began worrying about damaging it, especially as it's PVD coated. If the watch had been a cheaper quartz model I think I would have lived with the problems, but it seemed like I just had too much money tied up in a watch that I no longer really wanted and so a couple of weeks ago I seriously started thinking about selling it or trading it in for something else.
I really didn't want to sell it on eBay, because I couldn't take the stress of sending it off only for some tool to rip me off, or try to return it (eBay really encourages you to take returns even if you clearly state 'no returns') and so I looked to jewellers for a deal. The outright purchase option was a rude awakening since £650-850 seemed the norm. Since I paid £1750 for this one year ago I deemed this too much of a loss. But Watchfinder offered me £1200 against a Grand Carrera chronograph (CAV511A) and I came very, very close to taking the offer. But then, I took another look at the pictures on the website and realised that all three CAV511A's they had were a bit damaged on the bezel. Not terribly damaged, but damaged none the less and I knew it would bug the hell out of me on such an expensive watch, because even with my watch as a trade, I would still be paying out another £1500.
But now, I have sold the watch and it is no longer in my possession. I have no regrets, other than perhaps buying the watch in the first place. I still like the dial, although it is slightly bigger than ideal at 44mm, but I'm not keen on the case or the way the pushers and crown seem to stick out to the right. The lume issue rankles, but I've learned a lesson there and always check any watch before purchasing now. But yet again the strap/clasp was the biggest problem and you can see why I so often focus on that in my 'On the Wrist' reviews, I really don't want to buy any more watches where I have to buy another strap to be able to wear it at all.
I knew I'd made the right decision when I came to pack the watch up for sale, I didn't have any last long lingering looks, if anything, my overriding emotion was relief, because I just wanted it gone. It's a rather sad ending to a tale that took several years to play out, but I guess if nothing else I learned a few lessons about watch buying from it. I just hope whoever ends up buying it gets more enjoyment out of it than I did.
I actually traded this watch in and I'm waiting for my new watch to arrive, hopefully it should be here very soon. It's not something I would have ever thought I would buy, even a few weeks ago, but you know how it is, you try something on and realise just how much you like it and a few days later you're emptying your wallet again. I'm really looking forward to getting it on my wrist and sharing my new arrival with you soon.
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