FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera 'Glassbox' Rattrapante Chronograph

I guess this was inevitable wasn't it? Having engineered a new Rattrapante movement for the Monaco a couple of years ago it was an obvious move to slide it into a Carrera case at some point and here it is. Are you excited? Does it make your balls tingle? What if I tell you that it costs in excess of £100,000? No, I don't understand why either... but we'll gloss over that, because what's the point of moaning about it. It wouldn't make any difference if it was half that, I still couldn't afford to buy it and given there's no real reason a split seconds chronograph should cost this kind of money given that you can get them for a fraction of the cost from other manufacturers, we have to kind of treat these watches as TAG Heuer's 'Richard Mille' models. Strategically overpriced to appeal to the kind of people that will only buy a watch if they know other people can't afford them...

VIDEO: TAG Heuer at LVMH Watch Week by Time & Tide Watches

 

VIDEO: Putting the TAG back in TAG Heuer by Monochrome Watches

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Monaco Rattrapante 'Air 1' Limited Edition

 

I'll admit I haven't exactly been complimentary about the previous Monaco Rattrapantes. Obviously I haven't seen one in person and it's entirely possible that they are one of those watches that just doesn't photograph well (much like the Grand Carrera), but until now I've found them spectacularly unappealing, despite several different colour combinations being released. But now TAG Heuer have given us this new $150,000 limited edition (30pcs) and if nothing else they've certainly improved it's kerb appeal.

But it's more than just a new colour combo (and black and gold is almost always a winner), because this one has been redesigned to mimic the look of an imaginary supercar, taking design cues from said car including all the grilles and shapes you'd expect to find on a Lamborghini cum Ferrari cum Aston Martin.

VIDEO: TAG Heuer at Watches & Wonders 2025 by Time & Tide

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Monaco Rattrapante 'Formula 1 75th Anniversary' Limited Edition

 

When TAG Heuer launched the Monaco Rattrapante last year the media was all over it, meanwhile in the real world all I heard was people grumbling and throwing out comments like... why would I pay £121,000 for that when I could buy an IWC Rattrapante for a tenth of the price. Well, you have to admit it's a good question. After all, the rattrapante complication is nothing genuinely new in the watch world and while the construction of the Monaco may be impressive and high tech, it let itself down in one incredibly important respect. Yes kids, the truth is it's ugly as all hell.

This (alongside the astronomically high asking price) was reflected in the end of year scoring and the Council of Considered Opinion eventually handed the pair of them an embarrassing 4.4/10 (blue) and 4.7/10 (red) respectively, making them the second and third least liked Monacos since the C.O.C.O. began back in 2020 (only the truly hideous Monaco Riviera rated worse!).

VIDEO: TAG Heuer at Watches & Wonders 2025 by Revolution Watch

 

VIDEO: Up Close With The 2024 TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph by Hodinkee

FEATURE: TAG Heuer at Watches & Wonder 2024 (with Jim Dollares)

 

Greetings dear readers and welcome to our annual round up of Watches & Wonders. As ever I have our delightful Swedish contributor Jim Dollares with me and well, I think it might be an understatement to say he's fired up and ready to talk...

ROB: Hi Jimbo, how's it going on this beautiful Monday morning?

JIM: Hi Rob, thanks for reaching out. Let me start out by saying that I have now calmed down a bit after my utter rage I felt seeing the very weak line up presented by TAG Heuer this year. Did I say weak? Yes you heard me!

ROB: Well, yes I must admit I wasn't exactly blown away by this year's W&W offerings, or indeed much of anything that's come out this year... in fact at this point in time I'm struggling to think what I can use my WOTY vote on. I mean, there's still a long way to go and I'm sure there's dozens of new watches due for release before we get to that point. But even so, it's been a fairly lacklustre start to Mr Tornare's reign (although you can hardly blame him as he's only been in the job for five minutes).

Okay, so where do you wanna start? How about the new Panda glassbox?

JIM: The panda glassbox in theory could have been something really nice. I mean, we saw with the 60th anniversary of the Carrera how exceptionally wonderful a perfectly executed glassbox panda can be. What TAG Heuer released this year though, is like the mentally challenged cousin of the CBK221H.

ROB: Yes, yet again everyone seems to love this latest glassbox and yet again I feel like there's something wrong with me because I honestly think it's pretty odd looking. I really don't understand where all this positivity comes from; you know, all these You Tube watch gurus making videos with titles like 'TAG is back' and 'TAG is smashing it out of the park with these new glassboxes'. And I mean I say everybody, but compare the COCO score for this new version with the 60th Anniversary - 6/10 V 8.7/10, that shows me that at least the COCO has it's collective head screwed on right!

VIDEO: The Most Iconic TAG Heuer Watch of All Time by Kevin O'Leary

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Monaco Calibre TH81-00 'Rattrapante' Split Seconds Chronograph

 

Okay, hands up who else spat out their coffee when they read that the latest Monaco from TAG Heuer had a price tag of from* £121,000? I mean, we knew something was coming based off last year's 'Only Watch' Monaco Rattrapante so it wasn't exactly a 'surprise' (especially as TAG Heuer had been dropping hints left, right and centre), but I don't think anyone was really prepared for the jaw-dropping price tag the brand attached to this new model... even when you take into account the £3000 premium TAG are already charging for their current skeletonised Monacos over the solid dial variants.

*Depending on the level of customisation required, in case you were wondering....

I mean, had I been asked to guess the price I might have plucked £25,000-30,000 out of the air (especially since before this I wasn't terribly au fait with what the going rate for a rattrapante was), but I would never in my wildest estimates have gone over £100,000! And I wasn't alone, both 'A Blog to Watch' and (ex Watchfinder 'hands' guy) Andrew Morgan absolutely ridiculed the brand in their 'Watches & Wonders' YouTube round ups (though with their combined knowledge and industry savvy they should perhaps have been a little more 'informed'). 

But initially I too did not get it, especially when rattrapante chronographs are readily available from other brands such as Breitling at under £10,000 and from 'better' brands like IWC for not that much more. So there has to be more to it, doesn't there. It can't simply be that TAG Heuer are applying a Monaco premium the likes of which we've never seen before just because? 

Well yes, of course there is... 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer Monaco Split Seconds by Watches TV

 

VIDEO: TAG Heuer's 2024 Watches & Wonders Releases by Time & Tide

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Monaco Skeleton 'Rattrapante' Chronograph for Only Watch 2023

Fair play to TAG Heuer, when they commit to providing a 'unique' watch for the Only Watch charity auction (a biennial event to raise funds for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy) they certainly don't muck about. No sir. For the 2021 auction we saw the first ever skeleton-dial carbon Monaco and this year they've pushed the boat out even further with the first ever TAG Heuer rattrapante (split time) chronograph, and in a 41mm skeleton-dialed, texturised titanium cased Monaco no less! 

Which is great, but while I whole-heartedly applaud the company for its charitable intentions; the effort expended and resulting technical achievement... I'm afraid I can't overlook the fact that the watch has one major Achilles heel. Umm, how can I put this delicately? Let's just say it has a 'face' only a mother could love - right? 

In fact, presented with yet another skeleton dial TAG Heuer that I don't like I'm actually starting to wonder if my belief that I like skeleton dial watches was solely based on the devilishly handsome Heuer 01 Carrera, because honestly I can't think of a single skeleton dial that's come out since that I've actually liked!