As you may have noticed, I recently revamped the 'Part Number' index page with photo banners for each model instead of text. This not only makes the page look much nicer but is also easier to click on if you are viewing the blog on a phone (which I know a lot of you do). I also tidied up the text on the individual pages and increased the font size to make it easier to read.
As I was doing this it occurred to me that I could write some posts about region specific 'Limited Editions' and the first one that I thought of was 'Middle East' L/Es. You might be surprised how many there have been, starting way back in the 1990s with a 'Saudi Arabian Equestrian Foundation' Formula 1 chronograph and most recently with these new glassbox Carreras. I will most likely post this in January, so look out for that, but for now let's investigate these new models further.
These two are actually classed as MEIA + UK for some reason, I'm not quite sure why we get included, but okay. Maybe it's just because I'm looking at the UK website? Maybe if you look at the US website it says MEIA + USA? Let me go check. Okay, actually no, for once my cynicism was misplaced... these watches don't appear on the US website at all, so fair enough 'MEIA & UK' it is!
As I've said many times recently, I'm so bored of green watches and of course here we have two more! It's rather a shame that the colour is so overused now as it makes these that bit less unique and interesting, that said it's nice to see an olive green being used instead the infernal 'teal green'.
When I first saw these I much preferred the olive toned CBS2218 with the 'fumé' effect dial (actually according to the TAG Heuer website this is a sunray dial and not a fumé dial, so I'm not sure how pronounced that effect is in real life), but the more I look at it the less I like it. The gold hands and hour markers don't help and the black flange around the edge makes the dial look smaller than it is (which is a problem given that the watch is already a fairly small 39mm).
On the other hand, that shade of emerald green found on the diamond model never appealed to me and it hasn't really grown on me either. It's a great idea to put the diamond bezel under the crystal, but the results are pretty weak. I'd say this is definitely less successful than the dark blue version, but still better than that awful wishy washy peachy/pink thing they released at the start of the year; that is truly awful.
In the past we've seen region specific 42mm 'Elegant' Carreras (now called 'Carrera Chronographs') with Arabic hour markers, but this time TAG Heuer have kept the baton markers and restricted themselves to the special date wheels, which is still a nice touch. And while these don't particularly appeal to me (or indeed the majority of the Council most likely) we have to remember that these watches are designed for a very particular market and as such it isn't necessarily intended to appeal to everyone.
Having said all that, I must admit I was rather surprised how well one of these scored. I imagined they would both be in the very low 4's (maybe even high 3's), but the (not a) fumé dial actually picked up quite a decent 'First Impressions' score!
As ever, while the headline score might not seem to correlate to the scores with comments, a lot of the very low scores didn't come with an accompanying comment.
Olive Green 7/10, Diamond 5.5/10: "I'm liking the fumé dials, something I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of. The olive green works particularly well. It's a watch I would happily wear but nothing earth shaking. The emerald green fumé dial doesn't work as well for me.. at least in the render. Not a fan of diamonds and bling either."
Olive Green 5/10, Diamond 1/10: "First one is quite nice, but a little uninspired. Second one is simply awful."
Olive Green 5/10, Diamond 4.5/10: "It's not for me but I actually quite like the first one. Gives off a 70's vibe with the smoky olive green sunray dial and gold markers and hands compliment it. The diamond one is very nice too and the diamonds add a nice touch of glamour, but personally I prefer the olive dial variant."
Olive Green 7/10, Diamond 5/10: "The olive green dial with gold hands & markers, it's a striking design, but not a fan of the Arabic numerals. 5/10 for the one with diamonds, it's just too blingy."
Olive Green 2/10, Diamond 1/10: "I like these two new glassboxes even less than the 'Year of the Horse' Carrera, so it's a 2/10 for the olive green, and a 1/10 for the emerald-green with diamonds 😏."
Olive Green 1/10, Diamond 1/10: "🤮"
Olive Green 4/10, Diamond 2/10: "4/10 for the olive green, just... date feature no help to me after a 3 day bender. Diamonds on a gents watch? No, in ladies jewellery, yes."
Olive Green 1/10, Diamond 1/10: "Glassbox models aren’t for me and these are about as bad as they get to be honest."
Olive Green 6.5/10, Diamond 3/10: "The Smoky-Olive is not bad. The Smoky-Emerald is bad."
Olive Green: 9/10, Diamond 8/10: "Love these… but I'm biased because green is my favourite colour."
Olive Green: 5/10, Diamond 7/10: "You won't be surprised that the steel and diamond version is my favourite. I'm not a fan of olive green although the smoky / fume dial adds interest."
Olive Green 6/10, Diamond 5/10: "The green black and gold one is a 6/10 for me. The green and diamonds gets a 5/10. One thing I do like about the diamonds is it takes the place of the outer curved bezel on the glassbox, which I dislike."
Olive Green 7.5/10, Diamonds 7/10: "The green is nice. Gold accents on the Olive Green are very nice."
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