FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02T Senna Edition

CAR5A99.FT6174

Surely this is the last new release for a week or two...? At least this particular run is finishing on a high note; you may remember my review of the CAR5A91 a while back (the one that took me six months to write) and how I wasn't exactly blown away by it. In fact I really didn't like it much at all, particularly the bottom heavy design (which unfortunately is still present) but mainly because I found the red highlights really jarring.

I'm not sure I like the yellow lume TAG Heuer have applied to the hands here, but I think the yellow Senna 'S' is a great improvement, but what really makes this watch work for me where the red version failed, is the green stitching on the strap. Yellow and green instantly says Brazil to me, and is a much more appropriate colour scheme than red for a Senna watch as far as I am concerned. It's a subtle detail, but as I said in my 'Fangio' post the other day it really lifts the watch. Don't get me wrong, there are some very nice red Senna watches out there, the one I tried on the other day for example, but yellow and green really says Brazil and Senna to me, so I think this is a good move here.

Would you look at that caseback, that is very cool... sure you can't see the movement, but that is really something, isn't it? I'm sure a well heeled Senna fan would find that hard to resist. I think it's great that they have really gone for it on the back, after all this is a special watch made to mark 25 years since the unfortunate and untimely death of the triple World Champion.

A criticism often leveled at 'special edition' watches is that there's too much on the dial; too much colour, too much text, too much everything... and I agree to a large extent; less is definitely more in most cases and as such I think it's a shame they've gone with that yellow lume as it looks a bit clumsy on what otherwise is quite a nicely presented piece. But on the back, you can push the boat out and that's exactly what they've done here and it looks great.

The watch is powered by a chronometer certified Heuer 02T Tourbillon movement, which has a 65 hour power reserve. It is 45mm in diameter with a matt black ceramic case, a fixed tachymetre bezel, PVD coated steel pushers and a rubber crown. The strap is matt black calfskin and the clasp that secures it is black PVD coated titanium.

The watch comes in this heavily branded presentation box, I'm not sure what it is made of, but given the price of the piece I would hope it is maybe wood or something more than the usual material. Speaking of the price, no word on that as yet... the watch is a limited edition of 65 pieces (presumably tied to the number of pole positions he achieved in his F1 career, which at the time was a record until Michael Schumacher and subsequently Lewis Hamilton surpassed it), but given the red model was around £17,000 then it's fair to assume this will be somewhere up in the high teens also.