TAG Heuer / Oxford Street, London 14th November 2019
Given that it's only days since I've posted my 'First Impressions' on the watches I tried on in the Oxford Street boutique today, I thought rather than create another six posts that I need to try to pad out, I would just do one post where I could give my impressions on all of them together. Unfortunately when my wife and I arrived at the store (rather late in the day) Aneta had already left, but Chau (also ex-Bicester Village) was there to take care of us.
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So the first watch I got to have a look at was the new Heuer 02 powered Monaco, and straight out of the gate I would say this one has 'Winner' written all over it. The dial is a beautiful, deep metallic blue and the red highlights give it that additional pop we all love. The blue strap is a nice touch as well, and one that gives the whole piece a cohesive look that really appeals to me. Maybe this could be the Monaco that finally fills that square shaped gap in my collection?
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In contrast, I'm slightly disappointed to say the Calibre 12 'Final Edition' left me a little underwhelmed. It's a very understated piece and if you're the kind of guy who likes a watch that flies under the radar then this could well be for you. I liked it, but when you put it alongside the new Heuer 02 model it looks a little... bland. This one is limited to 1000 pieces and the back-plate says as much; though as seems to be the fashion at the moment the pieces aren't individually numbered which seems like penny pinching to me... and that's not good on a watch that costs £4895!
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This is an interesting one... I think a lot of people are going to find this one a bit 'much'. This is 44mm of in your face green and surprisingly my wife really liked it... me, not so much. The dial is actually a really attractive and extremely unusual colour, it's a blue tinged metallic green... unfortunately the bezel looks exactly as it does in this render; moss green. In other words, it's a total mismatch, and for me it really doesn't work well at all. Apparently the bright green Aquaracers sold in minutes, I'm not at all surprised this one was sitting on the shelf, I think it's going to be sitting there a little while...
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As nice as the Heuer 02 Monaco is, if I was going to buy one watch in the boutique on this day it would be the new Carrera Calibre 16 'Fangio'. Limited to 300 pieces (and properly numbered on the back!) this watch is absolutely gorgeous. I'm still confused by the dial stripe because it sits under the hour batons, but it looks better than any printing I've ever seen... I'm guessing it is applied, but that it's a very thin material. Either way it looks fantastic, very glossy and a lovely colour. Is £4095 a reasonable price for a Calibre 16 Carrera? I want to say no, but I don't think it's going to be a problem to sell 300 of these at that price somehow.
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My wife didn't bother to try this one on as she could see in the cabinet that at 36mm it was going to be too big for her tiny wrists; this one is actually quite dark and the triangle pattern on the dial is difficult to see, at least under the shop lighting. I was hoping it was going to be a bit more of a vibrant purple, but it's quite muted and as such my prior suggestion that it could be worn by a guy with a smaller wrist stands and is, actually even more on the money than I thought...
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Lastly we looked at this blue dial Aquaracer, and this one my wife did try on (albeit it wasn't possible to try it on properly as the strap was too long and would require the excess cutting off to fit her wrist), she liked it, but she said she definitely made the right choice picking the green dial Aquaracer. I agree, it is very nice and the rubber strap is a good addition to the ladies range, but it doesn't quite have the wow factor of the green dial. Nice to see a textured dial on a quartz piece though, we men don't really get that do we...?
The 'Fangio' Carrera was the clear winner for me on the day, but I can see TAG Heuer shifting a lot of those Heuer 02 Monacos and somewhere down the line I could definitely see that as a viable option for me when it finally comes to scratching that particular itch. Overall I preferred the Calibre 12 blue dial to the Calibre 11, and this new version looks even better than the old one to me. Still not quite sure about that crosshair running seconds at the 6 position, but I'm sure we'll get used to it eventually.
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