Friday 13 January 2017

SPOTLIGHT ON: Carrera Calibre 17 Automatic Chronograph

CV5111.FC6335

Okay, I know what you're thinking... you're thinking this is going to be a hatchet job aren't you? Well, you're wrong. I don't have a problem with 'Heuer' branded watches, I just have a problem with 'watch snobs' who think 'Heuer' is somehow better than TAG Heuer.

This is a beautiful looking watch, there's no doubt about it. Sure, I'm never going to own one, but that's because if I had £4000 in my pocket there's a lot of other watches I'd be trying on first, not least the Monza 40th Anniversary and a (very) second hand Monaco 24. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate this, after all, I'm only ever going to actually own a tiny percentage of all the TAGs made anyway.

Regardless of the logo on the dial, this is a lovely looking piece, the combination of blue and silver is fantastic and the red second hand provides just enough pizzazz to make it come alive (and it compliments the red logo perfectly). Sure, it has an aerated leather strap, which is definitely a mark against it, but then it wouldn't look right on anything else except perhaps a bracelet, and at least it's not brown...

Nice to see a Heuer Carrera that's a decent size as well, 41mm is much more to my taste than a 39mm (anything smaller than 40mm is a bit small for my wrist) and if I was in the market for something a little more 'Classic' looking then this would definitely be right up there. It manages quite a trick really, managing to look classic, while at the same time sporting a modern edge, something a Monaco with a similar colour scheme fails to do.

The applied silver markers are perfect as well, not intruding too much on the silver dial and leaving the face looking clean and classy. My only doubts are about the legibility really, silver hands on a silver background might be less than ideal in some lights, but I'd have to see one up close to check that out.

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