VIDEO: TAG Heuer Carrera CBK221F Chronograph by The 1916 Company

NEW RELEASES: TAG Heuer Aquaracer LE, Carrera Extreme and the New Balance Collaboration

 

There's been a flurry of new releases of late, some of which the Council of Considered Opinion are currently mulling over... however there are also some which aren't really 'C.O.C.O.' worthy, but which are still worth bringing to your attention... and so I hit on the idea of combining them into a 'New Releases' post.

So the first thing I want to talk about today is the collaboration with New Balance that launched a few days ago. These are pretty cool looking trainers, but my personal experience of ordering New Balance online was that they were way smaller and way narrower than expected, which was a shame because I did find some really cool designs but unfortunately I was a bit late to the party and they didn't have them in bigger sizes for me to reorder. 

Consequently I stuck with Nike and Skechers, but I have to say I did try on some New Balance trainers in a shop recently and they seemed to fit okay - I still didn't buy them though, probably because I have several other pairs I haven't even got out of the boxes yet. And while I sort of like these, deep down I know that if they didn't have the TAG Heuer logo on them I wouldn't even consider buying them.. and that's before we get into the £270 price tag. Yikes. I feel distressed when I look at Jordans in the Nike factory shop. 🤣

The thing is, even if I bought them, would I actually wear them? And if I'm not going to wear them is there actually any point in buying them? I think not. And the soles look way too thick, don't they? But then again I'm only 5'7" so any help is welcome in that department! 

WBP1325.BA0005 - UK Limited Edition of 350 pieces

Next up we have this UK only 350 piece limited edition Aquaracer Solargraph. Oddly it doesn't give the quantity on the TAG Heuer website, nor does it appear to be printed on the watch... in fact the only reason I know it's 350 pieces is because TAG Heuer sent me an email telling me so. Weird...

I don't mean TAG Heuer personally sent me an email by the way, it wasn't a personal message from Antoine Pin! I mean I got a marketing email that told me... 🤣

Well, I don't really know what to say about this to be honest, because sure it looks 'nice', but it basically looks like every other two tone Aquaracer we've seen over the last twenty or so years, so I don't really see why it needs to be a 'limited edition'. Last year we had two limited edition Aquaracers, one in a pale pink and one in a caramel. I mean neither of them were really that great (especially the 'caramel' one), but I could see the logic of them being 'limited editions'. 

Price is £3400, but it is worth noting that the bezel is solid gold... but also that there are no gold centre links on the bracelet. In the past I've ripped into TAG for this, but then I heard the other day that gold is now ludicrously expensive so maybe it just isn't worth using gold on watches anymore if it's going to make them unreasonably expensive? 

Someone actually came on the THF Forum the other day to say they had a solid gold 6000 Series that was worth about $15,000 in scrap. I went to look at one of those a few years ago and they were asking about £6,500 or something... crazy.

CBU2051.FT6273

Speaking of gold, our final new release today is this Extreme Carrera in solid rose gold. You would totally be forgiven for thinking this is not a new product at all, because it looks a hell of a lot like the tourbillon version that came out last year... I overlooked it myself to start with I must admit. The good news is that sans tourbillon the watch 'only' costs £19250, which is a hell of a saving. Or a hell of a lot of money... depending on your viewpoint and personal circumstances.

Personally I'm still not convinced I would ever buy a solid gold watch even if I had the necessary funds available. I do like the gold/black reverse panda that came out a few years ago and I think that looks very cool in person, but most other gold watches I've ever tried haven't really made much impression on me, including the Porsche 2.7 chronograph with the red strap. I just think I'd rather have three or four steel or titanium watches rather than one gold one, but then long term maybe gold is a good investment?

Okay well that's it for today, we still have lots more to look forward to though, including an 'F1 75th Anniversary' Extreme Carrera, a super cool and very in-your-face 'Mexico' Extreme Carrera (the Council are gonna HATE that one) and another solid gold Porsche Chronosprint. Yay. All of which will be reported on just as soon as the COCO send me their scores back...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Extreme Sports Calibre TH20-02 Twin Time Chronograph

Hey did you hear there's a new TAG Heuer skeleton dial Twin Time available? Guess what colour it is? Go on guess. Bet you can't guess. You'll never guess in a million years. Is it teal green? Of course it is! Sigh... 

I really liked that new Shanghai limited edition Extreme Sports Carrera we looked at last time and this one is 'okay' too (certainly better than some of the Extreme Sports models we've seen), but we already have a teal themed 'Twin Time' Carrera, why do we need another one? Yeah okay the 41mm Carrera Twin Time is green and white and this one is green and black, which IS better, but it still isn't really that cool a combination of colours in my opinion. Okay, they wanted to change because the last one had been around forever and just making a new blue/black (or 'Batman') GMT/Twin Time wasn't really going to inspire owners to upgrade, but this is pretty meh from where I'm sitting and I'm so done with green now, and especially this bloody teal colour.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph by Maverick Watch Reviews

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Extreme Sports Calibre TH20-00 'Shanghai' Limited Edition Tourbillon

 

This year I've been fairly vocal about the fact that a lot of TAG Heuer's new releases are leaving me cold, but with the recent carbon Monaco and now this new ten piece limited edition for Shanghai I'd have to say things are looking up! Now, obviously both of these watches are out of my reach and it's also very unusual for me to find a tourbillon appealing, never mind an Extreme Sports Carrera... but it's nice to know that TAG Heuer can still excite me in unusual ways when they put their mind to it.

Now I get that this one is probably not going to be to everyone's taste, indeed when I was told that there was a new limited edition Extreme Sports Carrera that was red and blue (rather than red or blue) I imagined something fairly horrific. But that's because I (wrongly) assumed that the red and blue would be between the dial spokes like on the standard models. Thankfully the dial of this one has been kept black and grey and all the better for that, with the colours kept to a 'tasteful' band around the edge, the chrono second hand*, the crown and the tourbillon cage. 

*I hope the second hand red matches the red around the dial otherwise it will be minus at least one point for me!

PRICE LIST: TAG Heuer Price List 2013/2014

OWNED: TAG Heuer 4000 Series Quartz Watch

 

I last wrote about my white dial, quartz powered 4000 Series way back in 2023 so I guess it's high time for an update. Back then I had two almost identical 4000s in my collection, this WF1112 and the WF1111 which I had owned for several years before and which wasn't really in the greatest condition one way and another. Last time around I had just bought my green dial Calibre 5 Aquaracer and when I collected that I also picked up a brand new bracelet to replace the rather stretched one that the WF1112 came with (and which I had previously sold on eBay, wrongly thinking I could utilise the bracelet from the WF1111).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph Comparison by Brent Miller Time