COLOUR AND STYLE

With interchangeable straps in dynamic colours, the Formula 1 Lady can be transformed in an instant. The easy-to-use system adopted by TAG Heuer makes you feel like you have a variety of watches in one and at a very nice price.

Why make do with just one watch when interchangeable straps can give you the feeling you have several? The piece of leather used to attach a timepiece to your wrist was long been neglected and seen as secondary, but has come to the forefront in recent years. Thanks to this trend, you can now change the strap yourself, but you needed to have special tools and to be quite meticulous (a second of clumsiness and you could scratch the watch case), and above all make do with quite a limited range, since few brands provide extra straps (and often in traditional and quite dull colours). With the new Formula 1 Lady, which was rejuvenated earlier this year, TAG Heuer has opted for the principle of interchangeability with a simple system requiring no particular tools except your own hands!

The steel case of the Formula 1 Lady is available in 32 and 35mm-wide versions and features the aesthetic signatures of the collection: lugs merged with the body to form a barrel-like shape, side supports to protect the crown and the bezel and a lightly notched case to highlight the sports feel. Here the bezel is set with 36 brilliant-cut diamonds with interspersed polished-steel trapeze-shaped elements to highlight the gems. The effect also brings out the iridescent reflections of the white mother-of-pearl dial. At the centre of the opaline disc, silvered dauphine-style hands display the hours, minutes and seconds around a chapter ring with honed, metallic hour markers, a sub-plate and discreet minute track. The date is shown in a counter at 3 o’clock.

When you turn the watch over, you see a small lever on each part of the strap, near the watch case. When you press it, the pin is released, freeing the leather strap to be replaced. You need to press four times in all. The range of colours currently on offer by TAG Heuer is wide enough (green almond, jean blue or turquoise, orangery red, fuchsia or raspberry pink, beige and taupe) to find one – or many – straps to suit you!

Price from 2,000 CHF  tagheuer.com

By Sharmila Bertin