Thursday 20 October 2016

ON THE WRIST: Grand Carrera Calibre 36 RS Caliper Automatic Chronograph

CAV5185.FC6237

TAG Boutique / Bicester Village 1st August 2015

Although this was quite a while ago I do remember trying this one on. I think I wanted to get a feel for the Grand Carreras, because in the cabinets they do tend to look larger than they are. At the time 43mm seemed quite large, but now having bought the Heuer 01 which is 45mm that seems a bit strange, perceptions change I suppose...

I remember being a little unsure about the appearance in general. It does kind of look a bit of a mess, I like elements of it, the red on the main crown and caliper crown, the bezel, the fuel gauge on the left hand side (not even 100% sure what that is to be honest, I will check*)... but overall the effect is somewhat muddled. I'm not entirely sure about the caliper system as well, the guy in the store explained it to me, and I kind of understood it, but I can't honestly believe anyone would ever go to the trouble of using it, talk about long winded and complicated!

Sometimes I look at the Grand Carreras and like them and sometimes I really don't, I like the use of colour against the black, particularly the yellow and red versions (not so much the orange) and the versions without the caliper look better in some ways and worse in others. I'm not fond of the straps either, and when you consider the prices which even in the outlet stores are north of £5000, I just don't see myself buying one. Of course you do get the Calibre 36 RS movement, which no doubt is a draw for some people, but for me I think the price would have to be very favourable to swing me round to it.

If I remember correctly it had a glass caseback, but it was split down the middle so it had two half-windows that didn't afford a lot of visibility into the movement, seems a bit of a shame when you have a quality movement that you can't really see it very well.

*According to the TAG Heuer website it is a permanent linear seconds, which is what I thought it probably was, though how easy it would be to read the seconds I'm not sure.

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