CAW211Z.FC6470
So the wait is finally over and the last of the five '50th Anniversary' Monacos has been released... and to be honest I can't help feeling that it's a bit of a let down. To be fair the watch has a lot to live up to, with the first three watches in this series being outstandingly interesting and original takes on the Monaco theme. The fourth one was 'okay', although it seemed to have a tenuous at best 00s 'design philosophy', but this one makes a lot more sense in principle, unfortunately it seems to fall a little short in execution...
Looking back, I guess the idea of releasing each watch separately was a reasonable one, as it achieved two things: 1) We've had a summer of Monaco releases creating interest and column inches for each watch, and 2) If the watches had all been released at once as a 'collection', chances are the 4th and 5th would have got zero attention alongside the 'green', 'red' and 'concrete' models. But while the idea was good, the problem with it was that it kinda locked TAG Heuer into releasing the watches in a certain order, which hasn't really worked out so well for the last two. Perhaps the best thing to have done would have been to work backwards, and to release this first, thereby saving the red and green watches for last? Sure, the initial impact wouldn't have been as great, launching this first wouldn't have made nearly the splash that the green '70s' watch did, but once over that hump the releases would have ramped up in impact each time, instead of tailing off slightly as it seems to have.
Of course this could have been avoided if the company had delivered on the 10s concept, but they seemed to have fluffed it slightly, albeit perhaps this is understandable when you look at the bigger picture. Ever since the low quality renders were leaked onto the internet way back it was clear that this watch stuck out like a sore thumb. The dial was super dark and the case looked different to the other watches, leading to speculation that this was some kind of 'phantom' Monaco. After all, this watch is designed to represent the current decade so a 'phantom' Monaco would be a perfect place to start.
I imagine someone delivered a design concept for the 'phantom' Monaco, whereupon someone else looked at it and said 'Well, yes... I like it, but it doesn't fit in with the other watches in the set, can you make it a bit less phantomy?' And so, instead of a black dial with charcoal grey subdials we get silver subdials and a case that is matted rather than properly 'phantomised'. I guess they did go with a black date disc, so that's something... but overall the effect seems a bit muted and it has a distinct air of 'what could have been' about it.
This is definitely my least favourite of the five watches, I think if I had to put them in order I'd go with the 80s first, then the 90s, then the 70s, then the 00s and finally this 10s watch. However, Monaco fans shouldn't fret too much that this batch of releases has come to an end because we're still waiting to see what comes of the CAW211J (which is rumoured to be a 1000 piece limited edition Calibre 12 TAG Heuer Monaco) and after that there is the Heuer 02 loaded blue dial Monaco (CBL2111) to look forward to.
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