CV2A82.FC6237
TAG Boutique / Bicester 2nd April 2016
Obviously this was some time ago now, so my recollections will be less than completely vivid. I think the price for this was somewhere between £2600-2900, and the fact that I tried it on and was considering buying it suggests it was probably at the low end of that price range. This, of course, would have killed my chances of owning the Heuer 01 any time soon, so I'm glad I didn't buy it.
Having said that, a quick forage suggests the list price of this watch is (rather shockingly) £4000, which puts it in the same territory as the Heuer 01 and the Monza, and I know which one of those three I'd put last in a head to head!
I do like the 'minute' markers on the dial, but as I've said before, for some reason they never show up very well and the dial always ends up looking dark and hard to read. It's such a shame because the design is great, it's just the execution that lets it down a bit. The grey stripe is quite cool and the subtle red stripe to the side is a nice touch, although it could be said that this watch is a tad overloaded with red highlights. There's the Nismo logo on the bezel, the stitching on the strap, the back of the strap is completely red, the subdial hands a re red, the top pusher, the chrono hand... even the 'Calibre 16' text is red. I like red on watches (a lot), but this seems to be verging on overkill.
As you'd probably expect, this watch carries the Calibre 16 movement which is (sort of visible) through the glass caseback. Ah yes, the caseback. This is another one of those 'display' backs that doesn't really display very much at all. As you can see below, a large percentage of the glass is covered with the 'Nismo' logo which rather renders the whole exercise slightly pointless.
I've never really got on with these straps, they always seem a bit odd. Very smooth and 'synthetic' feeling, I know there's a Carrera with the tyre tread rubber strap and it seems a missed opportunity not to have put it on this watch, especially as Nismo is Nissan's racing arm. Actually, when you take a look at the car this watch was tied in with, it's amazing it manages to look as nice as it does, because boy is that thing UGLY!
NISSAN GT-4 LM NISMO
I know I'm getting to be a bit of a broken record, wanting the tyre tread strap on everything, but come on, this time I'm right aren't I? It's a watch to celebrate a racing car, so let's have the tyre tread strap please.
Leaving that aside, I can't help but wonder just how well this sells outside of Japan. I mean let's be honest, Nissan is not a 'luxury' brand and nor is it 'aspirational' in any sense whatsoever. As we can see above, even their racing cars are hideous. I'm not really grasping what TAG are getting out being a Nismo 'partner', I suppose it bolsters their standing in Asia (very important these days as we know), and thankfully they haven't taken any inspiration from the actual car (the way watch companies often like to say they have), but really...
As it happens the car was troublesome and while designed as a hybrid (using very narrow back wheel) it was debuted at Le Mans with the hybrid system disengaged. After Le Mans (where the car had a lot of technical problems) Nissan pulled out of the remaining five races in the WEC to concentrate on refining the car, before pulling out of the series altogether for 2016 as it wasn't confident it could get the car to perform adequately and in line with their expectations. In other words, they didn't want to embarrass themselves!
A bit of a damp squib then really, perhaps they should have waited to make the watch to see if the car was actually any good or not? Still hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose...
No comments:
Post a Comment