My parents gave me a watch for graduating, and the best thing about it is how much more watch it made me want. I was a student with a fresh obsession and no money to feed it, so when they found a TAG Heuer Autavia CY2111 at a price they could justify, black dial with orange accents, I was handed the one I’d have chosen myself. It’s a 42mm steel automatic chronograph, built as a homage to the Autavias of the 1960s, and that last detail is the real inheritance: it sent me looking for the originals, then into vintage watches generally, and eventually towards the smaller watches I wear now.
For most of its life, though, it has been a watch I kept rather than one I wore. I’ve considered selling it a few times and never got close; my parents spent real money on something I truly wanted at the time, and a gift like that doesn’t go on a listing. So it lived on the winder, winding itself for nobody.
On the Wrist
Last week I finally dealt with the reason it never left the winder. The original steel bracelet is a notorious hair puller, and its end links are fitted so tightly that even watchmakers struggle with them, which is why I’d put the job off for years. Getting both end links off took me about an hour. Then a leather Monza racing strap went on, and the watch became something I’d reach for rather than something I was looking after. Autavia stands for automobiles and aviation, so a racing strap is less a restyle than a return to the brief.
You put it on now and nothing tugs, which after years of the bracelet counts as the headline feature. It’s still a large watch, but the case is a barrel cushion shape with no protruding lugs, so nothing overhangs the wrist and it wears smaller than most of the others in my rotation. That makes it very wearable rather than merely tolerable, and comfortable in a way the bracelet never managed.
What Bothers Me
The bracelet, without much nuance. It pulls arm hair, and it resists coming off: end links this tight cost me an hour and, I’m told, defeat some watchmakers outright. That’s a flaw with a specific price tag, because a watch I wanted badly spent years on a winder largely because wearing it hurt and changing it was a chore. The only other complaint is size; it’s a big watch, and the cushion case with its lack of protruding lugs does more to disguise that than the dimensions do.
The Verdict
It was never leaving the collection, and the strap has changed the reason: it’s in my rotation now because it’s nice to wear, not only because my parents gave it to me. It’s the watch that started all of this, and it took a leather strap and an hour with a pair of stubborn end links to make it one that’s actually worn.
