Search the Community

The TAG Heuer Aquaracer Chronograph Quartz Grande Date Date CAF101F.BA0821 Designed and developed by professional divers, this Aquaracer represents TAG Heuer's historical dedication to scuba diving and extreme sports. Rep-Picture: Gen - pics The Original: Stainless steel case and bracelet. Unidirectional stainless steel bezel. White dial with luminous hands and index hour markers. Minute markers around the outer rim. Luminescent hands and markers. Date displays at the 12 o'clock position. Three subdials - 60 seconds, 30 minutes and 1/10th of a second with sweeping hand. Swiss Ronda Quartz movement/ ETA 251.262. Scratch resistant, AR sapphire crystal. Screw down crown. Case diameter: 43 mm. Case thickness: 13 mm. Deployment clasp. Water resistant to 300 meters/ 1000 feet. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date, chronograph. The Replica TAG Heuer Aquaracer Grande Date: The fit, finish, function and quality of this Tag Aquaracer Chrono are exceptionally good and it is one of the most accurate 1:1 replications I have seen by comparison to web-pictures of the gen. It features a claimed Swiss Ronda Quartz movement as the gen and the same sweeping 1/10 second hand. It´s one of the rare cases the only two reasons to buy the real thing would be the water resistance to 300 meters and the Box set. Until a side-by-side comparison with a Gen is available here are my impressions. The reviewed sample was provided by Sead/Supermirrors, 30 days from order to arrival before X-mas, well packaged with protective covers on the dial and backside at a cost of 239 USD plus shipping. For the quality-feel, the lume and the gen-likeliness of what You get this price is perfectly justified as the top-movement alone already costs 130 USD (at Esslinger.com) Available in black or white. Tag Logo: It shows the 2 arrows on the G Accuracy: +/- 2 seconds per month, not measurable 0,064 secs per day Quality/feel: Impressive, apart from the AP V5 Diver it’s the best overall quality I found in a rep. meaning Chronopushers, stem, time-setting, screw-down crown working smooth and precise as a gen. Not only looks but also feels like a gen which is great; Bezel: Outer, unidirectional rotating 60 minute S/S brushed bezel with 2 clicks per minute to count elapsed or remaining time up to 1 hour. Sits tight and well, rotates easily, precisely and fast with somewhat loud clicks (easy to count by audition). The engraving is good and filled with black. The luminous pearl at 12´ together with the marker at 12´ provide a nice nighttime effect for locating the 12´ position; The inner bezel with the detailed minute count is highly polished S/S and fixed. Lume: Best overall and visible lume, the same on the hands and stickers of a quartz-replica; specially being a Chrono; the same as on gen – pictures. This is a serious reason to prefer this model when choosing a quartz movement. on Nato-Strap Lumeshot compared to AP 15400 BP Maker Lumeshot compared to Rolex Seadweller Chrono: The main second hand is locked at the 12´ position unless You use the chrono. This is a perfect feature because You don´t have a big ticking hand to look at, this was one of the reasons to buy it quartz in the first place. The running seconds tick visibly at 3´ position if You look directly at the subdial. If the eyes are looking either to the big date at 12´or the 6´ encircled subdial You can´t tell. The minute counter scaled to 30 is at the 9´position. Best chrono feature: Sweeping (!) 1/10 seconds are displayed at the 6´position. This hand sweeps flawlessly (no ticking) and very fast measuring 1/10 seconds for the first minute. (Check out a video on youtube) After the first minute it stops sweeping and starts measuring the hours elapsed. Date: Big date display in 2 windows – one for each datewheel - at 12´, nice feature, perfect visibility Caseback: Same as gen (!) Nice, crisp and deep engravings with very high quality of the divers helmet, perfect lettering and engraving. It is quite beautiful also in my opinion. Bracelet: Double locking fold over clasp and easy to use (just push open) divers extension. It has 3 working positions for micro-adjustment on the clasp which is a big plus. Off the wrist it rattles. On the wrist its silent, feels very comfortable and holds the watch well. Actually it feels solid and perfect because of the micro-adjustement possibility and fits the watch case well. Its easy to remove and fix the bracelet on the case. It took time and was quite difficult to remove the link pins – it´s the Heuer system with a tight-sitting pin fixed by a small tube in the middle which Omega also used and nasty to play with. If You bang on the pin-removal tool with pliers or a small hammer they come out after a while and in the end it was easy and without any scratching of the links, but before this broke my (cheap) screw pin removal apparatus (as it happens often with Tag gens by the way as seen on Youtube) and had it on a Nato-strap for some days so its better to have one of those around when You get the watch. Divers extension inner clasp detail outer clasp Weight: 175 grams including bracelet (some links removed) Case: measured 10´ to 4: 43 mm Dial: measured 10´to 4´: 31 mm Thickness: 12,06 mm exactly Size measurements for the Gen differ from site to site with 43 and 44 mm as well as 12,3, 13 and 14 for the thickness Size comparison to the PAM 212 Flyback Chrono and the Rolex Sub- Ceramic Final thoughts: It is a high-quality Watch bordering the super-rep status for its likeliness to the original. The big date is very well readable, the luminiscence is good and the 1/10th second sweeping hand is a joy to look at. It wears solid and comfortable and has a good weight. The overall quality is superior to many lower priced generally known genuine brands. The quartz movement itself is very shock-resistant by its nature so this should last for a very long time. As this is a replica forum in my opinion this is one of the most believable replicas available because of the pricetag of the gen too. The possibility of this TAG even being a rep never even crossed my mind. I “believe” it’s a gen, that´s how good it is. If You are looking for a reliable quartz watch in black or white this surely is one of the best options. Thanks to all reading this first attempt at a review until the end. If You liked this or found this review useful please post a comment or leave a thumbs up.