CBN201A.FC6539
Yeah, yeah... I know what you're thinking and you're right, 2023 is indeed the 'Year of the Rabbit', hence the arrival of that bizarre 44mm Carrera with the 'hairy' dial at the end of last year. But, apparently... TAG Heuer intended to release a chrono version of their (rather cool I thought) Calibre 5 Carrera 'Year of the Tiger' last year, but for some reason it just wasn't ready. And since it takes 12 years to cycle through the various animals of the Chinese calendar putting it out now makes more sense than waiting until 2034!
Besides, does it really matter if you buy a 'Year' watch in that year? If you were born in the year of the tiger do you have to buy your 'Year of the Tiger' watch in a year of the tiger? Seems a pretty stupid prerequisite to me. So no, while the delay is a bit unfortunate releasing this now is perfectly fine by me.
Much more important is how it looks, and I have to say I think it looks pretty neat. Unfortunately when the C.O.C.O. did their scoring we only really had the render and one slightly oddly lit wristshot to go off, but now there are some more pictures available I think it actually looks better than maybe we all thought it did.
Like its three-handed sibling the CBN201A features 'tiger' stripes across its blue dial, and while obviously this is less easy when you have the chronograph subdials getting in the way it still works very nicely. I remember when the Calibre 5 version came out I was a bit confused by the fact that it was a blue tiger stripe dial, but blue is apparently considered a lucky colour in Japan (hence why a lot of the Limited Editions have been blue) and ultimately a much classier way to go than orange for sure.
As I'm sure you have already worked out, this 'Year of the Tiger' chronograph is based off the 42mm model (formerly 'briefly' called the 'Elegant' Carrera) and features TAG Heuer's in-house Heuer 02 movement. I believe it is only available from Tomiya in Japan (who are celebrating their 91st anniversary this year) and is a limited edition of 90pcs - which I guess would make sense if it was supposed to come out last year. However there is already one available on Chrono 24 from a different Japanese seller though, which is up for £5033.
Overall I think I prefer the Calibre 5 version, but this is still a cool limited edition piece for Japan. Let's throw it over to the Council of Considered Opinion and find out what they have to say...
6/10: "The 3-hander looked kind of fun (at least in renders) but on the chrono the pattern works significantly less well, IMHO."
4/10: "I find it ugly, but I recognize this is a niche product."
5/10: "It's better than the first year of the tiger watch. But there are several nicer 42mm Carreras than this."
6/10: "The Tiger stripes didn't work for me on the original 3 hander, they still don't work for me on this one."
5/ 10: "The render looks much better than the wrist shot, they could maybe have played around a bit more with the color scheme (something like the new Chronotempvs Carrera) would make it look a bit more tiger like..."
4/10: "I like the render more than the photo. This does not excite me in any way."
6/10: "I think the tiger livery dial worked better in the three hander Carrera than in this chronograph, which looks very busy."
3/10: "It’s bad, that’s all I have to say."
4/10: "Too, too busy."
6.5/10: "Completely different in the render vs the actual shot. Render would score a 5.5, but think it’s more like a 7.5 in the second photo. Didn’t think I would like it but actually looks pretty cool to me, in a random sort of way."
6.5/10: "Not for me, but the price is surprisingly low for an ultra-rare, limited edition."
6/10: "The bling factor is nice and high with this one."
8/10: "I bought this watch, so I can't give it a fair evaluation. The reason I bought this watch is because I bought a 3 hands Tiger edition Carrera for my child, who was born last year."
5/10: "I think the stock image looks nice but I'm not sure I like it as much as the real life photo. The dial looks messy to me and the TAG shield logo looks illegible. The markers are ok and work well with the rest of the watch. I'm just not sure I like it overall."
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