FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Goodwood Festival of Speed' Calibre TH20-00 Limited Edition Chronograph

 

Way back in the dark ages I remember seeing various 'Goodwood Festival of Speed' limited edition Carreras in the TAG Heuer outlet at Bicester Village. It always struck me as slightly odd that watches that were limited to such small quantities (125 / 250 pieces) should remain unsold, and perhaps that's why we haven't seen any in recent years...? 

But with TAG Heuer doubling down on their commitment to motorsport I guess it shouldn't be a massive surprise to see this new limited edition of 100 pieces. Initially released to members of the Goodwood club, the model is now available on the TAG Heuer website for £6450, which given it has rather a unique look to it, doesn't seem too bad.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph by Mitch Lui

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Heuer Monaco 'Stopwatch' Calibre 11 Limited Edition

Of course the 'Gulf' Monaco wasn't the only Monaco TAG Heuer launched at the (somewhat anachronistic) Monaco Grand Prix, in fact it was only one of three. There was also a new colour variation on the eye-wateringly expensive 41mm rattrapante that literally no one paid any attention to, and then there was this black DLC coated titanium cased Calibre 11 'Heuer' Monaco that seems to have garnered almost as much attention as the Gulf. Which kinda makes you wonder why they released them both at the same time honestly, given that they are probably aimed at a similar buyer. Oh well, I'm sure TAG Heuer know what they are doing... perhaps the cache of launching it at the Monaco GP outweighs the conflict and perhaps some well heeled harbour-dwellers will take both?

VIDEO: TAG Heuer 2000 Series 'Moon Dust' Restoration by The Nekkid Watchmaker

 

OWNED: TAG Heuer 1500 GMT Quartz Watch

 

As I've mentioned recently, I'm still in the process of trying to reduce my TAG Heuer collection to something approaching a 'sensible' size (20 would be perfect, really) and that obviously means selling more watches. That's fine, but obviously the further I go with that the harder it's going to get to convince myself to let go of watches that I've collected, especially watches that have been with me for some time and which (to me at least) represent the 'best' of a particular model line. 

And that's exactly how I feel about this GMT variant of the 1500 Series, at 40mm it is the perfect size for me and much better than the vast majority of 1500 Series models which are 37mm in diameter. As such, me selling this is basically ruling the 1500 Series out of my future collection because I'm not going to buy an inferior piece or buy another one of these again, so unless I win the lottery and money no longer matters, this is it. 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Aquaracer 300M Professional by Bruce Williams

 

ON THE WRIST: Colourful 36mm Aquaracers & Miami/Spanish Formula 1 Solargraphs

 

TAG Heuer Boutique / Milton Keynes, 31st May 2025

My second visit to the Milton Keynes boutique this year and this time I was lucky enough to find not only a couple of the new 36mm colourful dial automatic Aquaracers but also two limited edition Formula 1 Solargraphs. Sadly there was no sign of the blue dégredé dial on the white rubber strap, and it seems like perhaps it's not actually released yet - though I notice TAG Heuer have added it to their website with the option of a steel bracelet now.

But we (my wife and I) did get to see both the purple and the pale green versions and honestly we thought they looked rather nice. I was expecting the purple dial to look a bit wishy washy in real life, but it's actually quite a strong, vibrant tone and while it's certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea I thought it was quite effective. My wife really liked it, but unfortunately (like the 'Tiffany' blue model before it) at 36mm it's just too big and chunky for her wrist. And of course a 36mm diver is far too small for me, not that I particularly want a purple dial Aquaracer anyway...  

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera Day/Date Watches by Brent Miller Time

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Monaco 'Gulf' Limited Edition Calibre 11 Chronograph

There's always quite a lot of excitement when TAG Heuer announce a new 'Gulf' branded Monaco and even I (someone completely untouched by the romance of Le Mans, Steve McQueen, etc) am not immune to the lure of the striped, square dial. However I did find the most recent regular 'Gulf' model a little disappointing (for me it was perhaps the least interesting of all the 'Gulf' models we've seen to date) so it's nice to see a really good one this time around, even if it is a limited edition.

For the 2025 edition we've gone right back to the start with another white dial Monaco embellished with red and blue stripes (as seen on Steve McQueen's race suit in the film Le Mans). It's funny but every time we get a new Gulf Monaco it always descends into a debate about how they never use the right shade of pale blue (with most agreeing that the 2018 limited edition of 50 pieces was the most accurate from that point of view), but thankfully here we don't have to worry about that, phew!