FIRST IMPRESSIONS: New Carbon Collection Carrera Chronographs

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I had to allow myself a small chuckle when I watched the second part of Jean Claude Biver's interview with The Watches TV, not that there wasn't chuckles aplenty (Mr Biver is always entertaining after all), but during the interview he alluded to the fact that since he had taken the reins TAG Heuer had 'reduced/rationalized' their product range and it was now time to start the second phase of that. And yet... it's becoming harder and harder to keep up with the product launches. In the last few months we've had the carbon Aquaracers, the Ayrton Senna Carrera Heuer 02, the Oxford Street Carrera, the Alec Monopoly Formula 1 and Carrera... and I'm sure there's more (oddly though there's still no sign of the Calibre 5 Autavias... is it too much to hope they've scrapped that idea?).

So now we have another carbon collection, this time featuring three Carreras, one of which contains the Heuer 02T movement, while the other two are powered by the Heuer 02 as used in the Autavia. According to the TAG Heuer website, the Heuer 02T pictured above comes in a 45mm (titanium) case and costs $21,500 (approximately £16,700).

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This was the first of the three carbon watches that I saw, and it caught my eye because I always kind of liked the blue edition of the Carrera Heuer 01. I'm still undecided about whether I'd ever put my money where my mouth is with a blue watch like this, but the splash of blue certainly makes a change from the ubiquitous red. As with the tourbillon model this one has a carbon bezel and lugs, but here they are fixed to a PVD coated steel case. It's a shame that these don't come fully cased in carbon like some of the older carbon TAGs, but I guess the parts you mainly see are carbon and it keeps the price down.

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This is definitely my favourite of the three carbon Carreras, I can't quite decide whether the red goes with the gold or not, but I like it anyway. I've long lusted after the rose gold lug version of the Carrera Heuer 01, and having the different dial layout might give me the excuse to add another 'modular' Carrera to my collection, whether I'd spring the extra for the carbon bezel I'm not sure.

Interestingly both the rose gold and the blue (which is technically described as 'white' for some bizarre reason) come in the smaller 43mm case, which would be another point of difference for those of us who own the original Heuer 01 skeleton watches.

Obviously with the rose gold version the only carbon fibre you're actually getting is the bezel, but on the upside at least these Carreras don't feature those awful 'pretend' carbon fibre dials they put in the Aquaracer collection. Price for the white/blue is $7700 (approx £6050) and the gold is $9750 (approx £7650). It seems a bit mean that the gold and blue versions don't have titanium cases, considering my £4000 Heuer 01 skeleton does, but I suppose it's an extra selling point for the tourbillon version.

The back clearly shows the text 'Limited Edition' although there's no numbering and no indication of how many will be made. The watch is also not available to buy online, so if you want one you'd better get yourself along to your nearest boutique.