Watchfinder & Co Boutique / Avery Row, London, 5th September 2023
Still smarting from the missed opportunity that was the H&T £1700 Grand Carrera Caliper, my attention returned to the steel CAV5115 and more specifically the one on offer on the Watchfinder website. Price wise this one was a much more realistic £3850, but... and it's a big but, it had some problems. Firstly the bezel has some marks, which is not a massive deal and in all honesty may be a good thing since I am more likely to actually wear it if I don't start with a 'perfect' watch.
Second of all, the red stripe is missing from around the left hand crown that operates the timing 'Caliper'. This I don't really understand since I assumed this red was paint, so how it's fallen off is a mystery to me. For me this isn't a massive issue either and again is something that could be rectified (presumably) relatively easily. Also I think there should be a small rubber o-ring around the crown, but I bet most of those disappear sooner or later - that one I really wasn't worried about at all.
TAG Heuer Boutique / Bicester Village, 11th March 2019
Not the first time I've tried on this particular Grand Carrera I'm sure, but it still can't fail to catch my eye... you really can't go wrong with that colour scheme, can you? This particular Grand Carrera features TAG Heuer's complicated but effective 'caliper' system which allows you to read off recorded time to one tenth of a second, eventually. I say eventually, because it's not a quick process and so it's not going to be usable for quickly repeated timings, but for one off measurements, it's fine.
I've posted a video before which tells you how to use the caliper system and I will re-post it here for your perusal. As you will see, it's not exactly user friendly, but then I doubt many people will ever actually use it anyway, so does it actually matter? That's for you to decide.
Whether you like it or not, the caliper system definitely adds to the Grand Carrera's unique look, especially with the Cotes de Geneve striping on the plate in the middle of the dial. I must admit I don't know what that part is actually for, or why it is on top of the dial. I suspect it's more for decoration than for any practical purpose, or at least any practical purpose that couldn't have been achieved in a more conventional manner. Still, it looks pretty cool and that's a good enough reason for it to be there I guess!
I think this is one of, if not my absolute favourite of the 'black' Grand Carreras, I really love the yellow highlights and the yellow stitched alligator strap sets it off perfectly. As you'd expect these come with a deployment clasp, albeit it is not coated, which I find a shame and as I've said before a bit of a pet hate of mine. The yellow backing on the strap is a nice touch as well and as with all Grand Carreras you get the usual split display window allowing you to see (some of) the Calibre 36RS movement.
So we've established that I like this one, but of course there is a sticking point, and sadly that is the price. The list price for this one is a whopping £8900, and even with a generous 35% being offered in the outlets these still come out at £5790, which is a lot of money. But then, you are getting an El Primerio movement and a very unique looking watch from a big name Swiss manufacturer. Personally I think this is the sort of watch that's bought with the heart rather than the head, because logically it doesn't really make sense when you think what else that money could buy you, but if you see it and just love it (and you can afford it), then does it matter?
As with all these coated Grand Carreras finding minty pre-owned pieces seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack, so given the discount on offer the outlet is probably your best option... and of course you also get your two year warranty, which is worth having on a movement like this for sure.
Although this was quite a while ago I do remember trying this one on. I think I wanted to get a feel for the Grand Carreras, because in the cabinets they do tend to look larger than they are. At the time 43mm seemed quite large, but now having bought the Heuer 01 which is 45mm that seems a bit strange, perceptions change I suppose...
I remember being a little unsure about the appearance in general. It does kind of look a bit of a mess, I like elements of it, the red on the main crown and caliper crown, the bezel, the fuel gauge on the left hand side (not even 100% sure what that is to be honest, I will check*)... but overall the effect is somewhat muddled. I'm not entirely sure about the caliper system as well, the guy in the store explained it to me, and I kind of understood it, but I can't honestly believe anyone would ever go to the trouble of using it, talk about long winded and complicated!
Sometimes I look at the Grand Carreras and like them and sometimes I really don't, I like the use of colour against the black, particularly the yellow and red versions (not so much the orange) and the versions without the caliper look better in some ways and worse in others. I'm not fond of the straps either, and when you consider the prices which even in the outlet stores are north of £5000, I just don't see myself buying one. Of course you do get the Calibre 36 RS movement, which no doubt is a draw for some people, but for me I think the price would have to be very favourable to swing me round to it.
If I remember correctly it had a glass caseback, but it was split down the middle so it had two half-windows that didn't afford a lot of visibility into the movement, seems a bit of a shame when you have a quality movement that you can't really see it very well.
*According to the TAG Heuer website it is a permanent linear seconds, which is what I thought it probably was, though how easy it would be to read the seconds I'm not sure.
