When you’re a football legend like Real Madrid captain Cristiano Ronaldo, you’re allowed to bend the rules a little. So we won’t give Ronaldo a yellow card for wearing a sports watch with a tux to the FIFA Ballon D’or Gala in Zurich.
To collect his third award for footballer of the year, Ronaldo wore a TAG Heuer Aquaracer. Although it’s most identifiable by its nubbly, stainless steel bezel, this tool watch is made more elegant by its association with sailing, scuba diving and other genteel pursuits.
TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 16 Chronograph timepiece
Ronaldo has also switched things up by customizing it with an after market leather strap. So while we can’t totally ID which model he is wearing, you can still score a similar Calibre 16 Chronograph with a black rubber strap or stainless steel bracelet.
The Aquaracer series was introduced in 2004, designed to be a fusion between the high-tech world of professional water sports and more formal events—to move effortlessly from yacht to ballroom, if you will. Style-wise, Ronaldo’s Aquaracer chrono has a classic black textured dial with twelve-hour, sixty-second, and thirty-minute sub dials at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock respectively. It also features a stopwatch function with a long slender seconds hand that counts both split time and elapsed time. The brushed bezel has edged counters and superluminova dot at the 12 o’clock both provide a dignified take on the dive watch.
The 42mm case has evolved from the original Heuer/TAG Heuer 2000, the last watch released by Heuer under the stewardship of Jack Heuer. It’s rated to water resistance of 300m, the Calibre 16 self-winding movement is known to be a workhorse. Like Ronaldo, the Aquaracer is attractive and a solid performer.
