Have you ever done something so stupid that you feel like you’re going to vomit?
I have. Recently actually.
I woke up one morning a month ago and got the shock of my life. A notification from AMEX on my phone said $2500 had been debited. Nothing like the usual instagram scam message I usually get. No Brock, i’m not interested in joining your stock market membership program.
Oh fuck…. I’m in trouble.
By some cruel twist of fate, I got allocated a TAG Heuer Formula 1 X Kith Paris edition.
I wasn’t supposed to buy this watch. I wasn’t even particularly interested in it when it was announced. Not being a massive fan of either TAG Heuer or Kith, it’s something that I would usually ignore. But it just fell into my lap like an expensive Labrador.
How (Why) I bought the TAG Heuer Formula 1 X Kith, Paris Edition.
In the interest of saving you the trouble of having to explain how much of an idiot you are to your significant other, I’ll share my experience with you. Learn from my mistakes. Here’s how it went down.
I was scrolling Instagram one night and between the scantily clad fitness influencers I noticed that a new watch launch was causing quite a stir. A collaboration between famed streetwear god and purveyor of sugar coated cereal Ronnie Fieg and TAG Heuer, a mainstay in the horological world. This, a rebirth of the Formula 1 Model from the 90’s coming only weeks after Fieg was interviewed on Hodinkee for talking watches.
I’m only slightly suspicious of the fact that his vintage Formula 1 collection was a prominent feature in the video. I’ll let that one go. This is unrelated of course, but check this book out …
Anyway, what started as a brief flick through the product page on the Kith website ended up with me downloading the app and registering for four different variations of the watch. They asked for my credit card, but me being the trusting type, didn’t think anything of it. Surely they would ask me if I still wanted it. Fast forward a week and I wake up with a $2,500 charge on my credit card.
Uh oh, I’ve got some explaining to do.
In my defence, there was an extremely low chance that I would win the draw. 350 for the entire world?! I thought I was more likely to trip over a Patek Philippe in the street. That’s why I entered four of them, a total of 10k AUD. Thank god I only won one, I hear divorce is expensive and I wouldn’t be able to afford it will all of my TAG Heuer Formula 1 X Kith watches strapped to my arms.
Although It was stressful in this case, the draw model is still by far the best way to allocate limited watches. I go into this model in more detail in my M.A.D 1 Green article, praise be Max. It’s the only fair way to do it and I think Kith did it really well. Although they made it a little too easy, I think if they operated like swatch does and make you line up in the cold, they would have been a lot less successful.
So yes, It was a shock to win an allocation but it was still a great experience. Apologies to my wife.
The TAG Heuer Formula 1 X Kith
If you grew up in the 90’s and were lucky enough to survive all of the car boot drives and lead paint, this watch probably looks familiar. Launched in 1987, it was one of those cult models that was so of it’s time there was no way it could last into the new millennia. It would have burnt up on approach to Y2K like a conspiracy theorists tinfoil hat. That is to say, the trends of the early 2000s left the Formula 1 behind.
Nonetheless, If your dad had an Formula 1 back in the day, you were cool.
An interesting fact about the Tag Heuer Formula 1 is that it was the first time Heuer put ‘TAG’ on one of it’s dials. It seems fitting then that with this new edition, it’s the first time another company has merged their logo with Tag Heuer’s. It’s a nice nod to the past.
You Either Love It Or You Hate It
I have theory. The more limited a watch is, the more people will hate it. The graph for hate vs supply curves sharply up and to the right. It’s a weird phenomenon, an almost visceral reaction to someone else buying something that you cant. You may or may not even want it but just because you can’t have it, you hate it. Watch collecting is such a subjective thing yet the opinions come in thick and hard.
“Joined the hype train have you Mitch!”
“How could you spend so much on a quartz watch! You know it has a Citizen movement!?”
“It’s just another Moonswatch!”
All of these comments sent a lightning bolt of regret through me. “What have I done!” I thought.
Then the watch arrived and it all disappeared.
I unpacked the thoughtfully branded packaging and as I tried it on for the first time I saw my daughters eyes light up.
“I love it daddy!”
In that moment I remembered the watches my dad had when I as a kid, the Seiko SKX009 in particular. It’s something that means so much to me now. Sounds dramatic but I’ve dedicated my life to these things because of that one watch. It’s influenced so much of my life.
The TAG Heuer Formula 1 X Kith is a watch that has nostalgia built in. It’s design came from an era that means a lot to my generation and is very much of the time when my dad was raising me. Now my kids can see me wearing it as I raise them. It’s pretty special.
I’ve thought long and hard about whether I’m just trying to justify this large and slightly accidental purchase to myself through nostalgia and parental connection. I may be, but then again, we all justify things to ourselves differently.
If I love it I love it, the reasons don’t matter. Nothing matters.
At the end of they day, it's always going to be 'Just Us'.
Cya in the next one
x
