This new 500m Aquaracer is an odd update

Tag Heuer has been producing the Aquaracer brand of divers for the better part of 19 years and the range has always promoted models to the enthusiast and mass market buyers. Over the course of its life expectancy, the Aquaracer has transitioned from a sport diver to an appealing option for buyers buying a nicely made access point into the world of luxury divers. Just last year, Tag Heuer launched the Aquaracer 500m WAJ series, an aggressive and extremely sporty design that was definitely more diver than dress watch and was something of a callback to Heuer's roots in commercial diving. This year, Tag Heuer has released the next generation of their 500m diver (reference WAK) and has dropped a lot of the design cues that made the well-received 2009 WAJ range stand out from other Aquaracer models. These new ceramic bezel-clad 500m divers are much more reminiscent of the often overshadowed WAN series 300m divers, which are the dressy sub-a-likes in the earlier generation of Tag Heuer divers.

This new 500m Aquaracer is an odd update to the previous model. In what some would consider an act of sheer lunacy, Tag Heuer has downsized the new 500m WAK diver to 41mm compared with the 43mm case seen on the WAJ series (44mm on the chronograph versions). The distinctive plastic bezel of the WAJ series has been swapped for a svelte ceramic bezel that has the same look as the aluminum bezel fitted to the 300m WAN series. Power for the three-hand models will still be taken via the Tag Heuer Calibre 5 which is either an ETA 2824 or a Sellita SW200 (these movements are essentially interchangeable).

Having previously owned a Tag Heuer Aquaracer WAN2110 300m diver, I rather like this new model with its more subtle switch design, smaller case and the reality that its sapphire very is not adorned with a clops magnifier. The 300m WAN2110 is thin, simple and nicely made, essentially anything that a dress-diver buyer is seeking. What concerns me is thinking about having a Tag Heuer dress diver, but no sportier older brother. The WAN 300m makes more sense when you know, in the back of your brain, that while you chose the dressy option, the same company makes a tougher and more aggressive 500m model like 2009's WAJ series. I am quite sure that the new WAK is a serious diver, what with its 500m water resistance and SMP-like HeV manual release at 10 o'clock on the case side, but the "last gen" 300m and 500m Aquaracers complimented each other nicely. Those used to the prior generation models should preferably "try before they buy" as the new Aquaracers are more a re-think than development on the existing collection.