Welcome back everyone, I hope you've all enjoyed the Christmas festivities while the blog has had it's annual two day holiday and are eager to find out the results of the C.O.C.O. Council watch of the year vote?
But before we get into that I just wanted to take a moment to thank the members of the Council for their participation in 2021 and beyond. While I often find myself disagreeing with a lot of what they say, I still think it's a good idea to get a mixture of opinions on each new release and their input has definitely added to the 'First Impressions' posts and even on occasion made me rethink my own initial thoughts.
Thanks guys!
So just to recap, each member of the Council was asked to score each new watch out of ten and to also submit one vote for their 'Watch of the Year'. Once all the votes were added up and the scores divided by the number of votes cast (three members only voted for some of the watches) we ended up with a 'WOTY' and also a 'league' of watches, most of which was shared with you in my 'Best and Worst of 2021' post on Friday.
So now we come to the first order of business, that being the 'league' and the remaining (top) ten pieces...
It was a damned tight race with the lead changing constantly right up until the end. Ultimately though, the Monaco Titan just nudged ahead to take the win, but there was only 0.3 points between #1 and #5 so a very close call. Interestingly though, when we look at last years results, scores were down, with the Titan only managing equal third place in the overall standings and 0.7pts behind last year's winner.
I'm not going to lie, I was quite happy that the Titan took the 'league' win, while it wasn't my personal choice for 'WOTY' I scored it an 8 and was my pick of the leaders. But ultimately the league is one thing, the votes are what really count and while this competition started well (the first 12 votes received covered 8 different watches!) in the end the scales started to tip one way (a bit like the dial on this one...). 😁
So yes, in the end the Dato 45 took the crown, much to my chagrin. And while I can accept that six Council members voted for that as their 'favourite' watch of the year it does confuse me as to how it managed to garner quite so many 10s. The highest score I gave this year was a 9, because even my 'WOTY' wasn't 'perfect': the TAG Heuer logo on the orange dial Formula 1 could definitely have been bolder in my opinion.
So while I can accept that people really like the Dato 45, when you have a watch that is clearly 'flawed' by the placement of the date, how can you give it a 'perfect' 10? Makes no sense to me, honestly... but there we are, the Council has spoken and the Dato 45 it is.
Can't change it now.
No point dwelling on it.
But really, don't you think the 'league' is kinda the more representative measure?
This one vote thing is kinda arbitrary after all...
😜
When I asked the Council to re-score the watches I said there was no need to pass further comment, but if they wished to add anything I would find a place to post it. Obviously we've already had Abrod520's comments on Friday, but here to close out this year's results are some additional comments from DTF and Mspeedster (extra thanks to all three of you).
MSPEEDSTER:
The Hodinkee Dato stands head & shoulders above the rest because it's the one watch that's truly different and unique. The other standout watches (such as the Green Monaco H02, Green/Teal Glassbox Carrera and Titan Monaco) were mainly changes to the dial colour, but otherwise nothing all that new. Whereas the Hodinkee Dato needed a new date wheel design and reworking of the dial layout in order to become the re-edition of the classic Carrera 3147n Dato 45. Furthermore, the change of the chapter ring from the original's white to black was mindfully done, as it minimizes visual the distortion of the glassbox domed crystal. The watch overall is just brilliant.
While one can argue that the Only Watch Carbon Monaco is more unique, it's not a watch that any of us could buy. The Aquaracer homage to the classic 844 also falls short in comparison to the Hodinkee Dato. So for me, the choice was obvious and quite easy this year.
All in all, I felt the year was pretty lacklustre for TAG Heuer. The updates to the Carrera and Aquaracer line really didn't move the needle; the colour green was overused, as was the asphalt dial treatment & all black DLC look, and the Porsche x TAG Heuer collaboration yielded just an OK watch. Worst of all, TAG Heuer forgot or chose to ignore the 50th Anniversary of Le Mans the movie!!! What a missed opportunity for the Monaco!
DTF:
The carbon Monaco is the only watch that stands out from everything they have released this year. The only other one is the titanium Monaco, everything else is utterly tedious and derivative.
I feel like the 844 was a missed opportunity, it could have been a great BB58 contender, adding a retro inspired model to the line up. Instead it was the same case/size as the hideous regular AR, with a lumed bezel for no apparent reason.
With hindsight I should also add the orange 3 hand f1 to my list of '2021 TH watches that didn't suck'
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