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.

I mean I guess it's not completely terrible, but I'm willing to bet a shiny pound that the rubber strap doesn't match the bezel very well, and actually switching the strap for a black one might make this look a little less wearisome. Or maybe what about putting half the black strap at the top and leaving the bottom part teal, that might be fun? 

Okay, maybe not. It's not the 'worst' idea I've ever had but it probably isn't the best one either. At this point I'm clutching at straws trying to find some way of making this a bit more exciting. I mean why not black and red? All those Rolex fanbois waiting for a Coke bezel GMT... perhaps that would be enough to convert a few? 🤣

At least TAG Heuer have let go of the blue and white colour scheme we saw on the Aquracer GMT for five minutes a couple of years ago, that really wasn't a winning combination... I don't know, the more I look at this the more it starts to look okayish. But legible? Not very... no.

The CBU2084.FT6297 is 44mm in diameter and made from fabulously expensive grade 2 titanium. It features a fixed ceramic bezel and is powered by TAG Heuer's in house TH20-02 GMT/chronograph movement, which has an 80 hour power reserve. In the UK it costs £7900 ($9300 in the USA) and has been available for a few weeks already.

Okay, let's see if the Council are as fed up with teal as I am...

6/10: "I normally don't care for the Carrera Extreme at all. But there's something about this one that works better for me than the others."

6/10: "Too much going on here for my taste. Would have to see it in the metal, but from the available renders the readability is not very good."

8.5/10: "Really like this one to be honest. I love these Extreme ones."

2/10: "Where is our Autavia GMT and why do we have to get another silly tourbillon instead?"

4/10: "I like the colour but skeleton watches leave me cold, too fussy/busy, I like to be able see the time at a glance."

6.5/10: "Like the GMT functionality, but still too big and has the cheap rubber strap."

2/10: "Looks difficult to read. Not my style, though."

2/10: "Horrible colour combo."

7/10: "A seven for me but probably only because green is my fave colour!!!" 

4/10: "I like the shade of green but that’s about as much as I like about it. I’m not a fan of these so I’m going to give it a four."

4/10: "I want to like this more but it's a bit of a mess really, there's just no legibility!"

6/10: "I like the colour but still not a fan of the busy dial and the weird strap / lug design."

3/10: "I didn't like this colour. I want the traditional PEPSI colour scheme."

6/10: "I like it more than the blue version (5/10) and than the red version (4/10), but it’s not my favourite Extreme Sport version."