Wrist Game or Crying Shame: TAG Heuer Super Professional
Welcome back to Wrist Game or Crying Shame, a unique user interface allowing potential wearers of wrist-related objects to express their opinions in an anonymous, stress-free environment. Today, we’ll present you with the TAG Heuer Super Professional. But first…
Well, you all have a real penchant for watches named “Submariner” and that rang true with last week’s Tudor of the same name. The reference 79090 – the last acrylic crystal beast released by Genevan-based Rolex – cruised to an easy 65% Wrist Game win. Clearly, plastic is fantastic with this crew. Well, a scant 10 years or so later, another Swiss-based company threw its hat into the ring and tried to compete with some big-time competition on the diver front. Let’s see what you think about the TAG Heuer Super Professional.
The vintage – or semi-vintage – watch world can be a weird place. Sure, there are sure-fire pieces that are highly collectible, but there also exist outliers that seem like they should be more popular than they are. Yes, folks, I am foreshadowing here because I have a full-on crush on today’s make and model, the TAG Heuer Super Professional. To me, it’s one of the wilder, purpose-built watches from the 1980’s and into the 2000’s. It was apparently expensive, built like a brick sh*t-house, and I think pretty freakin’ cool. If you’re a fan of technical, but classy divers from the period like the IWC Aquatimer 3536 GST, then this TAG just might appeal to you.
Waaaaay back in 1984 – the year Mary Lou Retton tore up the Olympics in L.A. – Heuer was still a thing and they plopped a dive watch into its catalog called the Super Professional. From a brand that had been making some barely warmed-over quartz crap divers and other things masquerading as Rolex Sub knockoffs, the Super Pro was a serious departure. Armed with a front-loading case, a bezel that looks like it could, and happily would, kick the ass out of Jaws, this diver was good down to 1000 meters. Whether in stainless, stainless with 80’s (aka, sexy) gold bezel, or ultra-rare PVD, the Super Professional was ready to take on whatever came its way. A short year later, in ’85, the watch became the TAG Heuer Super Professional and it soldiered on until the millennium as the 840.006. After Y2K, it grew slightly to 43mm in diameter and became the WS2110. Eschewing battery power, the Super Professional sported an ETA 2892.
So, personally speaking, I bought a TAG Heuer Super Professional about 5-6 years back when I went on holiday with my wife to Greece. I actually spotted the watch that I ultimately bought in the window of a vintage shop and paid about $800 for it. I never wear it, but dammit I should and will now that I’ve decided to write this article! To me, the Super Professional reminds me of a TAG era when the Formula 1 watch was immensely popular and also when the brand had this super cool “European” vibe that somehow resonated in America. Yes, Europeans, we thought you were all so chic with your Benetton sweatshirts and synthesizer music!
At the time, I’d guess that owners of watches from brands like Rolex, etc looked down on this cheaper brand that was essentially making stylish watches, but one had to admire their pluck. And while I didn’t discover the Super Pro until much, much later (frankly, I never saw one in the store) it felt and still feels like the pinnacle of 80’s-90’s-early 00’s over-engineering. I mentioned the specs and for a brand that was formerly known (and still is) for timing race cars driven by prima donnas, this watch was such a departure. I love that kind of stuff.
But time hasn’t been overly kind to the TAG Heuer Super Professional. When I found mine, there were very few for sale at any one time on the web. I watched for awhile, but it felt like a rare watch. Sometimes, pieces would arise with their original – and awesome, but optional – kit that included two rubber straps and a strap changing tool. I should have bought one of those. But again, while these big divers were and are still relatively rare, they’ve remained in the below $2,000 category. If you ask me, that’s pretty decent value for a cool, tritium-dialed diver that can carry out its business without a silly helium valve. Let’s see what you think of today’s piece.
Today’s TAG Heuer Super Professional comes to us from the land of Hockey Night in Canada, umm – that’s Canada. In my humble opinion, it looks to be in nice shape with its main foibles being the loss of lume on the external bezel 12:00 triangle (a common malady often repaired via DIY) and the lack of box and papers. Still, much like a box of fresh Tim Bits, this watch doesn’t seem like something to easily pass up. The Chrono24 ad tells us that the watch is priced at 1,110 Euros or best offer – sadly that price isn’t in Canadian Dollars or I’d take two (the watch and photos are the property of the seller)! As mentioned before, I think that’s a lot of value for a watch with this amount of capability, eh.
But, hey, it’s not up to me! It’s up to you to decide whether this TAG Heuer Super Professional is both Super and Professional for 1,110 Euros.
