A Week With The TAG Heuer Aquaracer 200 Professional Solargraph

TAG Heuer launched the first Aquaracer 200 Professional Solargraph watches at Watches and Wonders 2022, and it remains one of the few solar powered dive watches available from a brand other than Citizen, who launched its first light powered movements in 1976. Part of the reason for this, has to do with Citizen’s ownership of movement manufacturer La Joux Perret, which in addition to supplying high quality mechanical calibers to the industry, also uses light-powered technology in the La Joux Perret produced caliber TH50-00. TAG Heuer’s parent company, LVMH, took a minority stake in La Joux Perret last year, and the same movement is used in the Formula 1 Solargraph as well.

The first thing you’ll notice about the blue-dial model, which is the one I had on loan from TAG Heuer, is the dial. The dial for a light powered watch has two distinct jobs – to look good and tell the time legibly, but also to let enough light through it to the solar cell (“solar cell” is a bit of a misnomer – any light will charge the watch, it doesn’t have to be sunlight) to keep the watch charged. Since 1976 considerable progress has been made in making solar cells more efficient and in producing dials which are translucent but don’t look it, and the result here is a very attractive vivid blue, with highlights that shift across the dial as the light changes. The colors can vary from a very bright, electric blue, to a deep matte hue that’s almost black, and overall does a lot of the heavy lifting in creating the very positive first impression you get from the watch, along with the applied indexes (which includes a smaller marker, just adjacent to the framed date window).

The case on this model is stainless steel, 40mm x 9.96mm, and both the case and bracelet feel great in terms of fit and finish – very close tolerances give the bracelet a secure feel, and the alternating finishes and textures, including mirror polishing on the bezel tabs and bracelet center links, as well as the grained texture around the bezel numerals, give the watch a real premium feel, helped along by the substantial but not excessive weight in the hand and on the wrist. Interestingly enough, while the case and bracelet are steel, the folding clasp is machined from grade 2 titanium – this gives you additional insurance against corrosion if the watch is going to be repeatedly exposed to salt water, which would tend to collect inside the clasp (most manufacturers for this reason advise rinsing steel diver’s watches after a dip in the ocean, but a little extra protection’s a nice touch).

I wore this watch for a bit longer than a week, the title notwithstanding; I took it along for Geneva Watch Days and found it a handsome, reliable, and of course, extremely accurate daily driver. Once set, it was exactly on time, to the second, for the entire duration of a ten day trip. I checked it daily against the online time signal from the US Naval Observatory at time.gov, and there is something very satisfying about seeing the time on the watch turn over to the second in sync with the atomic clock signal. I’m sure over a longer period of time it’ll drift but it was strangely satisfying to see it in lockstep with USNO.

I’m as much an advocate for the aesthetic, technical, and even symbolic meaningfulness of mechanical horology as ever, but from a pragmatic standpoint, this is pretty hard to beat. I have read over the years many comments which disparage electronic movements, including the solar calibers from Citizen, as “disposable,” but my own experience with them has been that they are almost implausibly reliable. My oldest light powered watch is a first generation Eco-Drive Skyhawk which turned 26 this year. It’s had the rechargeable cell replaced exactly once, and it’s working just fine. The Aquaracer 200 Solargraph is a different value proposition, of course, but I became quite attached to the watch after a couple of weeks and bid it farewell with reluctance. In person, in the metal, and on the wrist, it is a great example of a real set-it-and-forget-it watch, except for one thing – it looks and feels too good to forget.

The TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph: case, 40mm x 9.96mm, water resistance 200 meters; unidirectional elapsed time bezel; sapphire crystal. Movement, caliber TH50-00, co-developed with the La Joux-Perret Manufacture , light powered, with 10 month power reserve when fully charged. Battery lifespan per TAG Heuer, up to 15 years. Stainless steel bracelet with folding clasp in grade 2 titanium. Price, $2,800 from The 1916 Company; please contact us for current pricing and availability. The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized retailer for TAG Heuer watches.