Fair play to TAG Heuer, when they commit to providing a 'unique' watch for the Only Watch charity auction (a biennial event to raise funds for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy) they certainly don't muck about. No sir. For the 2021 auction we saw the first ever skeleton-dial carbon Monaco and this year they've pushed the boat out even further with the first ever TAG Heuer rattrapante (split time) chronograph, and in a 41mm skeleton-dialed, texturised titanium cased Monaco no less!
Which is great, but while I whole-heartedly applaud the company for its charitable intentions; the effort expended and resulting technical achievement... I'm afraid I can't overlook the fact that the watch has one major Achilles heel. Umm, how can I put this delicately? Let's just say it has a 'face' only a mother could love - right?
In fact, presented with yet another skeleton dial TAG Heuer that I don't like I'm actually starting to wonder if my belief that I like skeleton dial watches was solely based on the devilishly handsome Heuer 01 Carrera, because honestly I can't think of a single skeleton dial that's come out since that I've actually liked!
Perhaps this explains why TAG Heuer decided only to take photographs of the watch from some very odd angles, hoping that we would all be so blown away by the movement that we wouldn't notice how unattractive this watch actually is. Unfortunately this bizarre decision served instead to focus attention on the dreadful oversized lettering hollering 'RATTRAPANTE' and 'ONLY WATCH' at everyone who looks at it.
Okay, look... don't get me wrong, it's great that this is being made for charity and I truly hope it sells for a ton of money (to someone with a huge wrist - cos in this 41mm case, they're gonna need it). It's also great to see TAG Heuer doing some actual 'horology' again after a decade in the wilderness making only the sort of watches that people like you and I can afford to buy.
CAR5A8K.FT6172 (Nanograph)
Actually, I should clarify that this isn't entirely true; TAG Heuer made the 'Nanograph' a few years ago with a silicon hairspring - and that was great. But they also tried to put it in the Sellita SW200-1 inside the three handed Autavia and that resulted in the whole lot being recalled and replaced with the standard Calibre 5 movement. A bizarre move really, especially when the jump from £26,000 tourbillon to accessible three-hander was made in a matter of weeks - why wouldn't you properly exploit the technology in the super expensive league first?
Of course TAG Heuer also invented that vibrating silicon movement which was supposed to revolutionise watchmaking. Somehow that ended up going to Zenith, where it promptly stopped working and disappeared never to be spoken of again. Shame that, because it looked pretty cool!
Sadly, TAG Heuer's (many) successful achievements in watchmaking are all too often ignored, because you don't have to look that far back in history to find some pretty special work going on under the stewardship of Jean-Christophe Babin (currently in charge of Bvlgari). I'm talking about the Monaco V4 (in various incarnations), the Mikropendulum watches and the amazing Flying 1000 to name just a few; all of which came out in this century, and at a time when TAG Heuer was pushing itself upmarket by flexing it's technical muscles.
Instead of just by raising prices every six months. HA HA HA... sorry I couldn't resist.
Okay so maybe I've been a bit hard on this watch's looks. If nothing else we should definitely give kudos to TAG Heuer for not half-assing their contribution to the auction. It would have been so much easier to just produce a one off colour variation or something equally throwaway, but no they have definitely played their part and the guide price of £150,000-300,000 reflects that.
Okay, well it's not for me (which doesn't matter much since I patently can't afford to buy it) but I still scored it a 7 for the technical achievement and the effort expended... so now let's invite the good fellows of the Council of Considered Opinion to share their views once more (and boy were they divided over this one!).
5/10: "The movement is cool, which gives it positive points. But the watch looks like a toy, especially with the screws in the corners. I'm just not a fan of the look, hence I can only rate it as average."
4/10: "Sorry, looks like a parts bin special, 4/10. Mainly due to the clever mechanism."
9/10: "This is on another level for modern interpretation of modern Monaco."
10/10: "This is stunning, new movement and looks fantastic. I like the corner detail on the dial, adds some interest where the standard skeleton Monaco is plain."
6.5/10: "Hard to believe they've never done the rattrapante complication before now. That brings the score up a bit for me, and I appreciate the other unique touches to the watch. Not sure how legible it will be, and I wonder if it would have presented better with a different (i.e., non-skeleton) dial treatment."
10/10: "This really appeals to my inexplicable love for all things skeleton and all things Monaco."
?/10: "It's a bit pointless scoring this since it is Unobtanium! What's with labelling everything on watches at the moment? Why not write "seconds hand" on the seconds hand, etc? It just looks shit with all the text."
9/10: "An excellent effort for Only Watch. Really fits the mission - something totally unique, maybe a little bizarre, but one-of-a-kind through and through. I do hope future production pieces with this movement aren't so huge and garish, though - while I think that's fine for the mission of Only Watch, I don't think it'll translate into something desirable for actual wear."
6/10: "8 for pushing the boundaries. 4 for looking awful IMHO & something that Arnie would've worn in any Terminator film from T2 onwards."
9/10: "Avant-garde and somehow pretty cool (and wearable)."
8/10: "You either score this one high or low, nothing in between. I would never in my life buy something like this but an 8 is probably warranted. For some reason it looks more like an original Monaco from the 70s than the current designs."
5/10: "Difficult watch..."
2/10: "Struggling to find anything nice to say at all about this one. It looks like one of those bad Ali Express counterfeit watches you can buy for £45. If forced to choose between this and the horrendous Riviera Monaco, I would probably go for the Riviera."
3/10: "There’s nothing a like about it to be honest!"
1/10: "In keeping with the theme, I give this watch a 1/10. I find this very very ugly. Thank god there is only (1)."
2/10: "This watch is indeed an ugly watch, as others have rated it. It's probably because the dial gives a jumbled impression. However, for me, the treatment of the four corners of the watch face and the skeleton dial are design treatments that I wanted to incorporate into Skeleton Monaco. The Skeleton Monaco dial is also terrible. This watch doesn't have a good finish, so I'll give it two points."
9/10: "I don't understand the hate here. I feel it is great, also reminding a bit of the Grand Carreras."
7/10: "While not the most attractive, I applaud them for the exercise."
8/10: "When I saw this, it felt like the era of the Monaco V4. TAG Heuer was truly “avant garde.” For the exercise, I give it an 8/10."
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