ON THE WRIST: Carrera Calibre 16 Chronograph Senna Special Edition

CBB2080.FT6042

Ernest Jones / Manchester 12th November 2016

Finally got to try this one on a trip to the Trafford Centre at the weekend. As we know, I'm now a fan of the tyre tread rubber straps (after my initial skepticism) so that was a good start, and the buckle is the push button type (not unlike the Heuer 01), so again all good there. 

The watch itself is a good size, perhaps wearing slightly smaller than you might think from a 44mm watch, but again this may be something to do with the black case. The pushers are nice and the overall impression is good, I'm not completely sold on the wizzy red bits on the 12 O Clock subdial, I think that may be a touch of red too much - and I don't say that lightly, I love watches with red on, but this looks a little bit naff in my opinion.

The back of the watch is solid (no glass case back here unfortunately), with a large Senna 'S' in red. This being a 'Special' edition rather than a 'Limited' edition there's no numbering to make you feel that little extra specialness of being one of only so many people in the world to own this watch, I know it's a little thing, and often meaningless (especially when we're talking thousands of pieces), but still.

My problem is this, wearing this watch for a few minutes brought to mind another watch that is also black with red flashes, is a limited edition and is also much cooler and only another £50. So it is with regret that I must remove this watch from my list of possible next purchases because it simply doesn't make sense to pay £3950 for this, when for £4000 I could have a 40th Anniversary Monza on my wrist.

Yes I hate the strap, and it's going to cost me another £150 to change that, but I think that makes a lot more sense to me than this one, and I'm damned sure it'll hold it's value better as well. That being said, if this was to turn up in the boutique with a sub £3000 price tag on it than I might reconsider, but even then I think to be honest this doesn't actually stand a value comparison with that 2012 Monaco Grand Prix Carrera I saw the other week.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice watch. But it seems a lot of money for what it is, especially when you consider that £4000 also gets you a Carrera Heuer 01 like the one I already have.