Sunday, 11 December 2016

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Carrera Calibre 16 Chronograph

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I rather like this new Carrera, I think the changes that have been made to the dial (versus the CAR2014) give it a more modern appearance and certainly make it more appealing to someone like me. But truthfully, I am never going to buy a watch of this style, so I'm not the target audience. I wonder if the 'traditionalist' type of person will appreciate the bolder, more contemporary numerals? Maybe not so much on the watch above, but on the white dial, brown leather strap version (CV2A1AC) shown below.

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This configuration of white dial and brown leather strap screams 'tradional' and those numbers don't look 'traditional' to me. I still think they look great, and it's clear that TAG Heuer are trying to 'modernise' the look of their range and I think that's a good thing. I mean TAG Heuer are supposed to be 'Avant Garde' after all and there's not much 'Avant Garde' about a traditional watch.

I think TAG would probably like to split their brand in two, with all the 'old school' watches branded as Heuer, I think it would make sense and I think that's exactly the logic JCB would use. TAG has become a little confused in its messages over the years, wanting to be modern and cutting edge, but at the same time tied to its very popular and long standing traditional ranges such as the Monaco.

But this would undoubtedly cause some problems, since where would a watch like this fit? It's neither modern nor traditional, which may be it's undoing, or is this potential negative actually a positive? Perhaps a more modern looking 'traditional' watch is something the market has been screaming out for? Perhaps this is exactly the sort of watch for someone who likes the traditional look but doesn't like to feel 'old fashioned'? Maybe this model allows them to have their cake and eat it!

Of the other changes TAG Heuer have made, the most obvious is moving the date from within the 6 O'Clock subdial to the 3 O'Clock position and adding a day function alongside it. Although I quite like when TAG hide the dates in the sub-dials (not so much on the Aquaracers) I do think this layout looks better and adding the day function obviously wasn't possible where it was. The old model did look a bit bare on the right hand side, with just the TAG logo there and a lot of empty space around it.

The whole dial looks a lot busier as well, with a lot more markings on the sub-dials. Which again, to me, looks better, but less 'traditional' at the same time.


Read more about this range of new TAG Heuers on Calibre 11:


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