A Look at the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph

Thoughts on the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch? Pretty damn cool. Yes, you can wear the watch for a dive and it beholds most of the qualities associated with the brand’s flagship dive watch line, but this watch is just as readable at night as it is during the day and that’s thanks to some pretty ‘out there” lume coating. To say that TAG Heuer has been liberal with this stuff is an understatement, but I can’t talk too much about that when there’s another huge winning feature of the watch. A solar-powered movement.

Consider the modern-day TAG Heuer Aquaracer watch collection to be split into two sections – one aimed at divers, the other primed for outdoors. The new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch is designed for the latter with its non-cyclops date feature and horizontally patterned dial surface. But that’s not all. The new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph is also powered by the brand’s first-ever solar-powered movement that can charge through the face of the watch thanks to the Swiss watchmaker's collaboration with La Joux-Perret from La Chaux de Fonds. The innovative “Eco Drive” solar-powered technology is also the first to be used in Switzerland.

The new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 200 Solargraph watch features an all-black aesthetic with a robust stainless steel case that has been executed with a black DLC coating and a striking black carbon bezel insert filled with vivid green Super-LumiNova markings. Without further ado, here is the new and innovative solar-powered TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch, unveiled just two weeks ago in Geneva at Switzerland’s highly anticipated Watches and Wonders 2022 event.

Attributes of the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch

The new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch is one of the Swiss brand’s most exciting releases this year. It has been unveiled alongside other innovative models like the TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma watch, decorated with lab-grown diamonds cultivated from a special Diamante d’Avant Garde technology, and the new Aquaracer Professional 300 Orange Diver watch. The latter is clearly aimed at diving enthusiasts with a vivid orange dial that is proven to stand out against the dark depths of the ocean waters, plus it features an easy-grip screw-down crown, a sealed crystal glass caseback, 300-meter water resistance and lashings of Super-LumiNova. But the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph, although equipped with many integral diving watch features, goes one step above. The watch can be charged by energy from the sun through the surface of its partially transparent dial, making it a solid and trustworthy watch for wearing whilst out trekking, travelling, on a camping trip or surfing, for example. It needs only 2 minutes to charge up, powering the watch for an entire day. What’s more (and lucky for us British population), the watch can power by artificial light when sunlight isn’t an option. Once the watch has been fully charged, a mere 20 hours of charging time will give the new TAG watch a full 6 months’ worth of power and will remain in a usable condition whilst worn naturally on the wrist day after day. Once the movement is fully charged and up and running on the wrist, consider a mere 20 seconds of exposure to sunlight all that is required to start the movement up again. To engage the innovative power-saving mode of the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch, simply pull out the crown, this can extend the autonomy of the watch for three and a half years!

It is this impressive power retaining quality of the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph that makes it such a great investment piece. The power retaining solar energy is all thanks to the new Calibre TH50-00. Developed by La Joux-Perret for TAG Heuer, it marks the first solar-powered movement to be used by the Swiss brand. It sits inside a black DLC-coated stainless steel case measuring just 40mm and is integrated with 200-meter water resistance. It makes for a particularly compact model, despite its imposing all-black affair and its rich ribbons of lume that weave throughout a black carbon bezel – a design effect intended to imitate the ridges and veins running through rock formations. Put simply, this is a sporty outdoor tool that puts qualities like functionality and robustness right at the forefront of the design (but when has TAG Heuer never done that with a wristwatch?).

Thanks to this special solar-powered movement, the case of the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer watch can remain lightweight on the wrist. The black dial features striking white central hands and crisp hours for a remarkable contrast – each element served with lashings of Super-LumiNova material. The second hand is light blue in colour, so is the minute hand. These match the scale markings on the bezel. The hour markers glow in green to match the hour hand. Needless to say, this new Aquaracer watch has plenty of personality. The dial of the watch features the horizontal pattern we have all come to associate with the Aquaracer, yet look closer and you’ll see that this display is slightly translucent to allow the sunlight to penetrate through its surface to the movement itself. The repositioning of the date from 6 o’clock to 3 o’clock is no doubt also down to this change in movement.

The new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch is completed on a black integrated rubber strap with a twin trigger clasp. All in all, I think this new TAG watch shares some features with the Night Diver model. Plenty of focus has gone into its luminous elements for use in dark conditions, yet the Night Diver was larger in size, measuring a 43mm diameter. This compact 40mm Solargraph watch by TAG is sure to appeal to those with slender wrists. TAG fans asked for a more luminous dial and now they have it.

The watch will be made available from October, but if you’d like more information on the new model, along with details on how to pre-order the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph watch, you can call and speak to a member of our sales team here at Jura Watches today on 01335 453453. What do you think of the new TAG Heuer Solargraph watch?