CBL2117.EB0254
No, your eyes do not deceive you. What you see above is indeed a Monaco Heuer 02 with a semi-skeletonised dial in (something akin to) Tiffany blue! Who would have put money on that? Certainly not I, but here it is in all its... glory?
Well I'm sure the COCO Council will have plenty to say about that, but in the meantime (and before you get too excited about this new arrival) it's worth pointing out that just 30 pieces of this very unusual Monaco have been produced and the only place you can buy one is the TAG Heuer boutique in Monte Carlo. Ah, there had to be a catch didn't there?
This one was announced late last year on the 'Car & Vintage' website (well I say 'announced', it wasn't exactly hailed with a volley of trumpets, indeed if someone hadn't posted a link to the Calibre 11 forum we'd probably still be completely oblivious to this one's existence!), with deliveries expected to the boutique in March 2022.
Unfortunately, the scarcity of the product seems to extend to the photographs as well as there are barely any decent shots to share with you. It seems the photographer was more interested in 'lifestyle' shots; showing the watch being worn on a yacht and near a Porsche Carrera in a similar colour rather than taking detailed shots of the watch itself. Even the picture at the top of this post has been zoomed in from an otherwise rather hopeless shot of a boat deck with a watch in the middle distance...
As such it's quite hard to say too much about this one, we can only hope that someone buys one and puts some nice juicy shots on Instagram. I did try my best, I asked TAG Heuer UK if they could provide any shots and a part number for the watch, but because the watch is only sold in Monaco unfortunately they couldn't help.
Clearly the watch is modelled along similar lines to the carbon skeleton dial Monaco made for 'Only Watch 2021', which I wasn't entirely crazy about at the time... and I'm not sure the pale blue colour is selling me on it either. I just find the 'half skeletonized' look a bit messy, I can't help thinking it would be better to either skeletonise it properly or not to bother at all. At least with the carbon version it was less noticeable, here the white and blue is making it look more obvious and I can't honestly say that I care for it.
I find the large concentration of blue on the running seconds subdial distracting as well, I don't know why, it almost looks a different colour to the rest of the dial. I'm sure it isn't, but that lump of colour looks rather clumsy and I can't help thinking it would have looked better as a white subdial with a blue circle around the edge.
Frustrating! Still, it's nice to see TAG Heuer trying something different with the Monaco instead of playing it 100% safe (more on that front in a few months no doubt...).
The Monaco 'Riviera' comes on a bracelet and also includes the calfskin and turquoise stitched blue leather as seen (kind of) in the photos above. Let's hope by the end of the year we have some better pictures so we can score the watch properly, in the meantime it's time to hand it over to the COCO Council to get their first take on this most unusual piece.
CBL2117.EB0254: 6.2/10
"Its skeletonized style is reminiscent of the 'Only Watch' Monaco that we saw in 2021... which I didn't like too much either. The turquoise colour of the dial is interesting, and I like that it comes with the bracelet and two leather straps exclusive to this limited edition, but I don't like the shape of the dial... so it’s a 6/10 for me."
"I didn't see clear images of this one so it's really hard to judge. The color does not relate much with me. Skeleton Monaco, why not. But without a closer look, I don't know. Maybe 5/10."
"I am torn on this one. Is it Tag Heuer answer to all those Tiffany dial craze currently? It is still a Monaco for me. I like the case etc but I don't really like the open work dial. Yes I am an old soul that lives by the mantra 'the best Monaco is the old one. or at least vintage style'. Still it's a Monaco. Hard not to love it. 7/10 from me."
"5/10, the colorway is interesting at first glance but ultimately there's not much interesting here."
"Not a fan of skeletons and these colours don’t help, does look a bit better on the tan strap but without a price I have to go 4/10. If it were stupidly cheap I might have thought more of it for a novelty buy. Sorry TH not this time. Maybe I’m getting old."
"The Monaco remains my favorite Heuer/TAG Heuer, so any new Monaco is exciting and this one is something special. I'm generally not a fan of skeleton watches, but I'll make an exception for the Monaco - yes I'm biased. I like that TAG Heuer is taking the design from the extremely exclusive Only Watch Carbon Monaco and applying it to other Monaco variants. The Tiffany colored dial is also not something I'd normally go for either, but paired with that rare Mint Green Porsche 964 Carrera RS and it looks cool! Only problem is we don't know the price, but I'd expect a significant premium over the normal Monaco H02."
"Hard to tell from those pics. Not something I'm interested in either. Maybe a 5 from me."
"I’m not a fan of the “Skeletor” dial and this Monaco looks like a wannabee. It barely works even if you have a similarly colored Carrera. It might even be construed as a fake. SMQ Monaco trumps this by a mile. 4/10."
"I've never been a fan of the skeleton face. so overdone by so many watch houses. I'm sure there is someone out there who will absolutely love it… it’s just not me. 5/10."
"I want this Monaco and I want to give a perfect score, but unfortunately it seems difficult to get it. Therefore, I will deduct the points and make it 8.5 points."
"The look of this gets me in instant summer mood. A 7.2 of 10 from me."
"Surprisingly, I quite like this model, based on the fairly ordinary photos and despite not really being a fan of skeleton dials. However it looks shit on the bracelet compared to the blue strap/mint stitching and even the tan strap. Scores are therefore: Blue strap version: 8, Tan strap version: 7, Bracelet version: 4."
"I give it a 6, interesting and unique, not anything I would buy though."
"I like it, summer Miami Vice vibes, plus a skeleton watch which isn't unreadable. 6./10 for me."
"I give it a 6 . As much as I like the Monacos, this one is not for me. The solid circular seconds sub-register completely detracts from the skeletonized design. And the colour is not that appealing. Maybe a richer, marine blue would have looked better."
"I'm going to shock you and say I really like it. It's just a shame that the colour is jumping on a bandwagon that's already left. 7/10."
"I really like this Monaco!! It's different (in a very good way) from all the classics and I really like that! The colour choice is fantastic and really does remind me of the sea it is inspired by. It feels like a real summer watch and just looking at it makes me feel happy, so I would give this a 9 out of 10 rating! The open dial work is really well done in my opinion, in fact I love it! And if I could afford it or more to the point, I was able to acquire one (which I guess isn't going to be very easy) then I definitely would! The only slight niggle for me is that I'm not too keen on the bracelet. Nothing wrong with it at all, I just prefer it on the straps, which is obviously not an issue as it comes with the other strap options. The other thing is that there is something off about the sub dial at 6. I can't put my finger on it, but it's almost too blue in there. It doesn't bother me, but being nit picky it looks a bit odd."
For more information on the Monaco Riviera here is the article from Car & Vintage:
No comments:
Post a Comment