Customer Reviews

TAG Heuer Men's WJF211B.BA0570 Automatic Link Stainless Steel Watch

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking for a TAG for a while. This one has to be on of the sharpest one's available without breaking the bank. I get complements on it all the time. It obviously goes well with a dress suit, but also looks great with casual attire too. If this watch is in your price range, I highly doubt you will be disappointed.

I ordered this watch for my fiance as his engagement present. He absolutely loves it. The LINK brand is great because it is soft to the skin and doesn't catch his hair. He loves that he will never have to get a battery for this. Also, it is the perfect everyday watch. He wears it at his dressy office, but also around the house or at the bar watching a game. I highly recommend this product!

At most retailers this watch is over $1000 more than the price listed on Amazon. Amazon is not a authorized retailer for Tag watches, but this is an authentic item. For me, I would rather purchase from a trusted merchant that is not "authorized" and save the $1000.

With that said, this watch is beautiful and a timeless piece from an excellent watch company. We shopped several B&M jewelry stores and tried them all on, before I found it on Amazon. I was able to buy it for my husband for a present and he loves it. He always gets compliments about this watch! I highly recommend the watch and Amazon!

I've had this product about a week now and it's amazing. The Link band is comfortable to wear. Take this to a jeweler who has worked with the Link band when you get it sized since it seems to confuse jewelers who are not familiar with it. My one gripe with it is that it does not have micro adjustments for sizing. Otherwise this is a great watch to wear to work or for casual. The watch has lost about 10 seconds in the first week, but this is completely acceptable for an automatic. Make sure you know about accuracy issues before you purchase an automatic watch. This was purchased from Jomashop and they are great to deal with.

It's a beautiful watch at a reasonable price. My only gripe is that I was unaware that this was a mechanical watch, so I had to pick up a watch winder as well because the watch stops working if there's no movement for 40+ hours. This was an issue for me because I generally do not wear my watch on the weekends so I was forced to set it every Monday until I picked up the watch winder. I would recommend this watch to others.

To put this review in perspective, this is the first watch I've had that's over a few hundred dollars. I spent a good 12 months researching movements, attempting to find a watch that struck me visually, and had an equally impressive movement. I settled on this watch after seeing it in real life. I was going to get the Tag Heuer link calibre S, but after seeing in a store, the larger face dominated my scrawny wrists, and the face of the watch was boring (flat, untextured black as opposed to the pinstripe texture of the link calibre 6... the photos make it look good, but in real life it just seemed boring). Also, the quartz movement (although more accurate) didn't really have the cool-factor of the automatic movement. I chose the white version over the black one because I wanted something different; I feel like everyone goes for black watches these days, and this will stick out/set itself apart from the rest of the watches later down the road.

I've had this watch for 9 months now. The only hesitation I've had over buying it from Amazon over an authorized dealer was if I could even get it serviced afterwards without the little card that's signed by the authorized dealer. Amazon's warranty (at least when I bought the watch) covers the movement (and only that) for a few years, so I thought the price difference was well worth it. I have not had the need to have it serviced, so I don't know if places will services it without that card.

I give it 4 stars because the watch metal is so easy to scratch. Otherwise, no complaints.

MOVEMENT & ACCURACY:

9 months later, I've had no issues with the movement. Yes, it runs a *touch* fast, but not enough to set off my alarms. I'm very picky when it comes to imperfections (no exaggeration, I returned my original nintendo DS over 6 times before I got one without a dead pixel or screens with different brightnesses), but in terms of accuracy, I can't complain. If you really want accuracy, get a $100 digital quartz watch. When you buy into an automatic watch, it's just impractical to expect it to be perfect, and every watch is different. That being said, the amount of error after a month for my watch is roughly +1 minute. The important thing to call out is that the "inaccuracy" is consistent, which I think is an important aspect to call out. If you have absolutely no clue how fast your watch is running, *that's* something to be concerned about. With me, I know I'm between 0 and 60 seconds fast at any point. Since you have to update the date field every other month (to skip day 31 and go to day 1), it's a handy time to sync up. It should be pointed out that the movement on the second hand is a bit jerky, but apparently that's a characteristic of the calibre 6. Don't expect a buttery smooth sliding second hand. I don't know if this is a sign of a shoddy movement, but it should be noted that there is a Tag Heuer Carrera watch with the same movement but far pricier.

HELP, MY DATE FIELD KEEPS CHANGING AT NOON AND NOT MIDNIGHT:

I had this problem and thought it had to do with setting the date field at half or full turns. To fix this problem, move the hour hand exactly 12 hours.

BUILD QUALITY:

As is expected with a watch of this price, I can't pick out any issues with the watch under the glass. No fingerprints/dust/hairs/etc. The glow in the dark hour dots match up with the glossy hour markers, the minute hand is exactly on the minute markers when the second hand reaches 0 for all minutes (I've had watches where it was pretty close for minutes between 50 and 10, but between 20 and 40 it was not lining up perfectly). Everything seems centered, parallel, etc, and none of the black markings seems thick or think compared to the rest. I like how the hour and minute hands seem perfectly white in the center, and only show a greenish glow under very low lighting. The regular "pure white" (rather than greenish tinge) gives it a rich look.

The glass face of the watch is phenomenal. The anti-reflection coating does its job, and often times you can't even tell there's a layer of glass between you and the hands. When the light catches it at an angle, there's a blue-ish to purple-ish to magenta-ish sheen (the AR coating) depending on the intensity of the light. This is not obstructive at all, as almost all viewing angles don't show this sheen.

The rest of the watch is incredibly soft metal. The super glossy bezel is a magnet for hairline scratches, and the brushed metal can easily be marked up (for example, I was pulling a USB cable out of a backpack and the micro-USB end swung out, dragged along the bracelet, left a mark). I've heard through the grape-vine that you can retouch brushed metal really easily with a dish washing scrub pad, but have had no experience with this. If you've got a job where you're typing a lot, you may want to consider taking your watch off as you type, as the part of the bracelet that is between your wrist and the table will get scuffed up over time.

The back of the watch is really cool. Clean simple glass shows the movement below. You get to see some spinning parts, but in general, the back of the watch shows little movement. Everything seems very tight back there with some pleasant machine finishings, and obviously no jiggling. Holding the watch in your fingertips and gently shaking the watch lets you *feel* it winding up, but this feeling is lost when being worn on your wrist.

The bracelet is very comfortable, and the double locking clasp (snapping it down, and closing the extra clasp overtop) works perfectly. I've never had the bracelet open up accidentally, or had the extra overtop clasp catch on anything. The bracelet links are quite brilliant since they have no holes on the edges for resizing, yet they can still be resized. Since I've got my watch, I've noticed how nice the links are compared to the standard rectangular links on most other watches, and have noticed other people with Tag Heuer link watches, and how much this bracelet varies between the links (some of the older watches have very bubbly links, the newer calibre S has very flat hard links, while this one is in between). Probably because I see it everyday, I prefer the shape/bubbliness of the link calibre 6's bracelet compared to the other ends of the spectrum.

WIND-UP RESERVE:

The 42 hour reserve worried me. I've worn my watch practically every day and have not had the need to wind it up manually at any point. There's been a few occasions when I haven't worn the watch on a Saturday, wear it on Sunday, and then forget to wear it on Monday, but it still keeps running like a trooper. In these situations, I have not noticed any degradation of its time-keeping abilities. I was going to get a watch winder when I bought this, but have not found a need for it at all. Save yourself some money, and see if you really need one after a month of use.

SIZING THE BRACELET:

For my tiny wrists, I had issues sizing it just right. Playing around with removing links and adjusting the pin at the clasp, I couldn't get it just right, but it's not that bad. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy, and for the first time, I decided to let the professionals size my watch. I went to Ben Bridge in Seattle (4th & Pike), and that was a catastrophic mistake! I paid the $15 to get it wrong (after explicit instruction like "remove 2 links from the bottom half of the bracelet, one from the top half, move the fine adjustment pin by 1 in the direction that makes the watch band tighter") 3 times, lose the fine adjustment pin in front of me (that was the Manager John M.), scratch the bezel enough to need it to be buffed immediately after I got the watch, then return the watch with the bracelet scratched, then return it again with the crown scratched. They then said they were going to replace the crown with a crown from a watch already on the floor (how they keep their authorized dealer certification, I haven't a clue), but lied and just buffed the crown (and but still left some scratches). After calling the CEO (John himself), he hung up on me 2 times, even though I kept my cool and just wanted to talk and resolve the issue as soon as possible. They promised a refund which I never got, and had to end up sizing it myself since they couldn't follow instructions. With 30 minutes of googling, I was able to resize it right with a sawed off pin (for removing the clasp pin), a tiny flat-head screw driver, and a meat tenderizer. I did it perfectly without scratching the watch, which wraps up my long story with this; if you're a DIY kind of guy, take the time and do it right yourself. Otherwise, find a reputable watch place (not Ben Bridge!) and have it done for a small fee and not hassle. (Sorry for whining about something not amazon, but I want people to stay away from the shoddy work of Ben Bridge).

I have had this watch for about a year. It is beautiful and of course well made. It is not however accurate...which surprised me. I figured that if you paid this much money for a watch you could work as an Olympic timing official :) What I found out from a friend of mine that owns automatic watches that cost way more than this one is this is a common issue with this type of mechanism. Also be aware that if you are a person that only wears their watch on occasion you will probably want to invest in a winder. The watch will keep time for about 24 hours of idle time...after that you will need to wind and set it. Overall a good purchase....more like a nice piece of jewelry than a highly accurate time piece though.

This watch is a beautiful, classic and elegant piece. The only downfall is the automatic function. My husband is not used to wearing a watch that needs to be set if he doesn't wear it. This can be viewed as positive or negative, I guess, as it also will never need to have a battery replaced!