CBG2017.FT6143
TAG Heuer Boutique / Oxford Street, 5th January 2019
When I walked into the Oxford Street store, my main aim was to get a look at the new carbon collection Aquaracers. When they were announced I was extremely interested, at least until I discovered that the dials were printed with a 'carbon-esque' design. I think I've already made my feelings more than clear on this in my 'Best and Worst TAGs of 2018' post, but all the same I was interested to see if they looked any better close up.
Truthfully, they looked even worse!
Thankfully my attention was quickly diverted by the carbon Carrera collection and in particular this gorgeous specimen. What a gorgeous watch this is, I've tried a LOT of watches on over the last couple of years and it's not that often that I don't want to give a watch back, but this is one that was very hard to take off.
Admittedly it's not unlike my own original Carrera Heuer 01, although at 43mm it's slightly smaller (no bad thing actually, if they made my watch exactly the same in the 43mm I think I might have preferred it, but they just don't) and as such it wears a little bit nicer while still having serious wrist presence. Also of course, this has the new Heuer 02 movement with the much lauded 3,6,9 layout... up until this point I've been somewhat indifferent about that, feeling that the top of the dial looked rather empty, but here it didn't seem to bother me at all.
The watch does wear a little thick, I'm guessing shaving those two millimeters off the diameter makes it appear thicker (it's funny, I never used to be able to tell the 45s and 43s apart but I seem to be able to spot it right away now), but let's be honest the 'modular' Carrera range has never been about being discreet and if you think it's too thick then this probably isn't the right watch for you anyway.
The carbon bezel and lugs look great and are matt finished so there's no constant wiping away of fingerprints (yes!), but I'm slightly bemused that TAG chose to utilise a PVD coated steel case which means the watch doesn't actually strike you as particularly light, despite the carbon components. To be honest that wouldn't bother me, but you do kind of expect a 'carbon' watch to be light on the wrist.
This particular model is limited to 750 pieces (the rose gold version is limited to 350 and the tourbillon is 500pcs) which is a bit depressing, because even if I resolve to save my meager salary hard, by the time I get enough together I'm sure these will be gone. They are already showing as 'sold out' on the Beaverbrooks website, which is odd in itself as I was under the impression that these were boutique only pieces (I'm guessing that must be the Aquaracers, maybe they didn't want jewellers mis-selling them as actual carbon dials....).
It's times like this when I call into question my choice to have a larger collection of less expensive watches as opposed to a much smaller selection of more expensive pieces, but the truth is I want both! Maybe I need a weekend job or something! :(
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