When TAG Heuer and Time+Tide released the first Sundowner back in November 2024, all 250 pieces were gone in 24 hours. A solar-powered Aquaracer in sandblasted titanium, with rose gold accents and a khaki strap, inspired by the Australian outback, turned out to be exactly what people wanted.
Well, almost exactly.
The one complaint I kept hearing, and the one I had myself, was that it wasn’t mechanical. Solar is practical. It’s also not what gets most watch enthusiasts excited. So two years later the Sundowner is back, and this time around TAG Heuer and Time+Tide listened. The Aquaracer Professional 300 x Time+Tide Sundowner II is automatic, it’s a proper 300-meter diver, and it comes on either a fitted rubber strap or a full titanium bracelet. It’s not a new colorway of the old watch. It’s a different watch that happens to share a name and a mood.
The Sundowner II is built on the Aquaracer Professional 300, which means a case that measures 42mm wide, 12mm thick and 48mm lug-to-lug. That’s a step up from the 40mm original, and on paper it had me a little nervous. I have a 6.75-inch wrist, and 42mm is usually where I start paying attention. But the case is Grade 2 titanium, sandblasted to a matte gray, and that changes things. It’s light. Not feathery, but light enough that the size never becomes the story. The lugs are short and turn down toward the wrist, so the watch sits flat and doesn’t overhang. It wears smaller than the numbers suggest.