Here's a catch & release for me - I've had it a few months and I really like it, but I prefer the blue dialled Monaco so if I want to wear a slab on my wrist, that one gets the nod. This is a limited-edition TAG Heuer Monaco watch; branded simply "Heuer" - it was a limited edition model produced to celebrate 150 years of the Heuer brand. There were only 1860 issued watches (as Heuer was formed in 1860...) - see more info on Calibre 11. This particular watch is hardly worn - it's used, but visually it looks almost pristine - under a loupe or a macro lens, you'll spot some slight signs of wear, but it's been worn a handful of times (and annoyingly, some of my photos seem to have a few little bits of fluff that might look like scratches - they're not). It is numbered 0217 / 1860, and comes with inner/outer box, all papers and the guarantee card completed at sale in 2015. The perforated leather strap & Heuer deployant buckle are in very good condition, and in the time I've had it, I've never worn the watch on that strap (as I have a Corfam type one that I put it on from day 1). TAG Heuer released the blue-dialled CAW211A in 2009, a commemorative "Steve McQueen" 40 year anniversary of the Monaco, reminiscent of the original blue Monaco 1133B from 1969. Here's one I had previously. There was also a grey-dialled 1133G in the early 1970s (see the Hodinkee "Week on the Wrist" article) and this grey-dialled CAW211B is on the same lines - it's a slightly larger case (39mm vs 38mm) when compared with the CAW211A, but the hands are the same and the dial is pretty much the same, albeit a different colour. TAG Heuer brought out a production - CAW211P - version of the blue-dialled Steve McQueen watch (branded Heuer again, though with slightly different hands and dial printing) but there has not been a modern grey production version. So; if you want a grey-dialled Monaco (and they are really cool), you either need to drop a fortune on a 1133G or pick up one of these modern limited edition watches. My asking price is a solid £3,150, including delivery to the UK. PayPal fees and/or international delivery will be at your expense. I'm near London most of the time so can happily do face to face transactions. To make sure you're happy, I'll give you a grace period of a week to return the watch to me for a refund, if for any reason you decide it's not for you. I'll be in the US on w/c 23 April so might be able to do a deal there - try me if you're interested. I'm open to offers, but this is a very fair price for a watch of this rarity and in this condition and if I sold it for less, I'd be quite out of pocket so the man-maths calculator would dictate that I just keep it. I've reduced the price a couple of times now and this is the lowest I can go, or I'll just put it away again. Here it is looking great on the Corfam strap (not part of the sale); and here it is next to its later, non-limited edition brother, the blue & white CAW211P (for which I found a NOS Heuer Silverstone bracelet that it stays on most of the time):
Thanks - at a recent Time4aPint gathering, I met an owner of the original 1133G, and side by side it's interesting how different they are - the modern one is a lot more like brushed steel, versus the flatter (and slightly darker) gray of the original. Another wrist shot that shows that steely look...
Still here. One interested reader asked about the size of the Monaco, given that it seems like it could be huge... By way of comparison, here it is alongside a Seiko "Kakume", Omega Speedmaster Mk II & and Ed White (which is nowadays quite a small watch)... It's only a 39mm case so by modern standards isn't so massive, but the shape and relative thickness means it feels a pretty chunky thing. There are plenty of bigger, thicker watches out there, and not all of them new... (Kakume is 1977, SMII is 1971, Ed White is 65 and the blue CAW211P is 2016). Given all the watches I wear, I've had more people come up to me and say "nice watch" when wearing a Monaco, than all the other watches put together! I have approx. 17cm / 6 2/3" wrists... here's a Speedy and my blue Monaco, at Le Mans... and the blue one again, this time at Abu Dhabi F1... … and side by side, the Grey Monaco and Speedy Mk II...
I added the photos to the above bump about 6 hours after the post (rather than posting a 2nd time... not wising to fall foul of The Rules … ), but I figure some others may find the size comparisons interesting...
Final reduction and final bump - I'm also happy to give the buyer a week to decide if they want to keep the watch, and if not, return it for a refund. Oh and here's another pic.