I came across something today on my FB feed that for some reason just really irritated me.
Micro-brand Hager Watches have decided to produce a "new" watch called the Aquamariner. And here it is in all it's *ahem* "glory" -
Now call me old fashioned, but I can't help thinking this looks vaguely familiar somehow.... Hmmmm....now what could it be? Could it possibly be..... that it has just a slight passing resemblance to this perhaps?! -
In fact, the pictures of the BB's I've posted above are the new in-house models with the slightly different bracelet and the straight text on the dial : the older BB's had the curved text and plainer bracelet as per the Hager!
Now of course I know homages have been around forever (usually pathetic Submariner clones), but this one really takes it! I'm shocked that Hager Watches can even get away with this without Tudor claiming some sort of IP infringement. It's practically just a name-on-the-dial away from being classed as a fake. (Yes, I know the Black Bay Black is itself an homage of the Rolex 6538, but at least Tudor and Rolex are owned by the same parent!). To even copy the same colour options, right down to the matching colour crown-tube shows such a complete lack of ideas on behalf of Hager. Hell, it's even that same SIZE at the Black Bay!
I don't know why this particular watch more than any other homage has annoyed me so much, but annoy me it most definitely has!
This sort of thing really gives micros a bad name IMO. There are some excellent micros out there doing vaguely original things (H20 for example) but blatantly copied garbage like this makes me hope that most micros will end up taking a long walk off a short pier.
