ON THE WRIST: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 16 Chronograph

CAS2111.BA0730

TAG Heuer Boutique / Cheshire Oaks, 3rd November 2018

This was my first visit to Cheshire Oaks since last October and quite a lot has changed around there. For a start they've built a second level to one of the car parks, and judging by the insane amount of people there it's perhaps as well they did. I've always found that the Cheshire Oaks store never gets quite as good a stock as Bicester Village, which makes sense because Bicester is the more 'high end' of the two, but it definitely had a lot of new stock since the last time I went, but not much of what I personally would want to buy.

Indeed I struggled slightly to find something to try on, since it felt like the majority of things I would actually be interested in were things I had already tried on several times (Grand Carrera Chronos, gold bezel Aquaracer, Calibre 16 Aquaracer 500M PVD), there were an awful lot of 41mm Carreras in there on bracelets and straps (including a solid gold cased Carrera reduced from £15,000 to £10,000 - hell of a saving!) and some real horrors like the David Guetta Formula 1 GMT.

I was pondering over trying the grey/orange classic Monaco (pondering quite a while actually) but eventually decided on this CAS2111.BA0730 with a beautiful guilloche dial and blued hands and numerals. 

I've often admired blue hands on watches, but it does seem to be that usually a watch with that kind of finish will also come with Roman numerals and perhaps a more 'Vintage' style appearance than I would really go for. So it's nice that TAG have produced this watch with a more modern overall feel to it, I particularly like the applied numerals which truly set this apart from everything else in the shop (and pretty much everything else in the TAG catalogue if truth be told).

Doubtless some would complain that it's too thick, containing as it does the Calibre 16 chronograph movement, but I found it to be just about right for me. The thickness does make the watch look slightly smaller in diameter than it actually is, I asked if it was a 39mm when it is in fact a 41mm, but over than that it felt absolutely fine on my 7.3/4" wrist.

The five piece bracelet was also very nice, reminding me somewhat of my Grand Carrera with a similar push button clasp and feeling very comfortable on the wrist. A display back shows off the Calibre 16 movement, but I should think the wearer will spend more time looking at the beautifully detailed dial, I know I found it very appealing and if this watch was a bit more realistically priced for what would be for me an 'occasional' wear, then I could easily have been tempted.

The watch didn't have a price label by it in the cabinet, so I don't know what the list price was, but as it stands it's on offer for somewhere between £2700-2800 (I didn't quite catch the exact figure), which is probably a very fair price for what you're getting. I'd love one, but I can't really justify that when for that money I could be walking out with the gold bezelled Aquaracer 500M, but that doesn't stop me admiring it all the same.