Carreras one and all...
I received an email the other day, with a suggestion for a post (I like emails like that, since I'm always on the lookout for ideas - so thank you!), it said something like...
"I recently read a post on a blog about a watch company milking a model line (for example AP with the Royal Oak , or Omega with the Speedmaster') and I wondered if you thought TAG Heuer were milking the Carrera?"
The short answer to that is, of course, yes. But what I found more interesting is the reasoning behind it.
You only have to visit the Calibre 11 forum to see that the Carrera means different things to different people, on the one hand you have those who only value the '60s' style Carreras, with some ardent traditionalists refusing to accept the modern Carrera as a Carrera at all since it no longer meets the original design criteria (legibility over everything). On the other you have the more modern Carreras like the one featured below, and then of course we have the much more recent 'modular' Carrera with its skeletonised dial, multitude of finishes and even (at the higher end) tourbillons.
On top of that we have the Connected Smartwatch which is (somewhat unnecessarily in my view) designated as a Carrera. I have to say I think that is a bit of a nonsense as it really is its own entity and doesn't need to be nor should it be lumped in with the Carrera history... and yet, fitted with its Calibre 16 chronograph module what else would you call it? Hmm, tricky eh?
So sure, TAG Heuer are guilty as charged of 'milking' the Carrera name for all it's worth... but, honestly can you blame them?
Firstly, the watch industry is now in a state of MASSIVE conservatism. For nigh on ten years the companies have looked backwards and spewed out a constant stream of re-issues, anniversary pieces and heritage models. This is all well and good, but where in the past this was a small part of a more forward looking business now the roles have reversed to the point where even the watch magazines are starting to roll their eyes in frustration.
And those that do try to do something genuinely new have found it heavy going, the obvious example being Audemars Piquet and their tragically badly named 'Code 11:59' (whatever that is supposed to mean). I mean, in light of that particular debacle I cannot honestly blame AP for folding their arms and saying 'Fine, you want Royal Oaks, you can have as many as you like - but don't tell us we never try anything new.'
It's not that the 'Code 11:59' was a great watch, it certainly wasn't - but such was the glee with which the watch community ripped the thing to shreds and threw it back in APs face that the other watch companies must have watched in absolute horror and cast glances over their shoulders at their own R&D departments. And if they had any 'new' model ranges in the works, at best they would have wanted to give some serious thought as to whether it was wise to push ahead or not.
Watch companies (and indeed many other kinds of companies) are very keen on pushing their history as a sign of quality and reassurance. For instance this year TAG Heuer are celebrating their 160th anniversary, some other watch companies can claim a similar vintage and some even longer (Breguet, since 1775), but really it's only the last sixty years that has any real relevance.
If we look back to the 1980s, TAG Heuer's model line-up was made up almost entirely of new ranges. This was the time of the S/EL, the Kirium, the 4000 and 6000 Series, yes the 2000 survived from the Heuer days, right up until the 2000s when it was rebranded as the Aquaracer. Many forget that the Monaco and Carrera lines were discontinued before TAG bought the Heuer watch company and they weren't brought back until almost ten years had passed, and even then it was as a niche model with a very limited model range.
Soon the Carrera range expanded to include new models, most of which seem to have proved acceptable to the traditionalists, but all that changed at the 2015 Bazelworld watch fair when TAG Heuer (under the stewardship of Jean Claude Biver) announced a new kind of Carrera altogether.
I was spellbound and instantly resolved to buy the Heuer 01 Carrera for myself, but others were not so keen and this is an argument that has splintered the Calibre 11 forum ever since as TAG Heuer have announced more and more Carreras in ever less 'traditional' designs. Nowadays you can buy 'Phantom' Carreras, models which pile black on black on black until actually being able to read the time is secondary to the overall aesthetic. In the process becoming the absolute antithesis of what makes a 'Carrera' a 'Carrera'.
Part of me truly thinks that the Heuer 01 Carrera should have been given a new name, but I can see why they didn't go that route. Yes the model range is confused as hell with watches that look nothing like each other sharing the same name, but from a marketing point of view and from a 'risk' point of view it made total sense to call these new watches 'Carreras' and to tap into the Carrera heritage buzz. I bet in hindsight Audemars Piguet kinda wish they had called the 'Code 11:59' the Royal Oak Supernova... or something, anything that meant it couldn't be simply dismissed out of hand.
Besides, it's become 'the norm' now that watch companies have to keep things simple for the consumer, so having two racing chronograph lines was a no-no. I mean that's why the Autavia is now being pitched more as a pilot's watch than it ever was before, and also why we have the new 'Autavias' that have little to do with the Autavias of old.
Watch companies (and indeed many other kinds of companies) are very keen on pushing their history as a sign of quality and reassurance. For instance this year TAG Heuer are celebrating their 160th anniversary, some other watch companies can claim a similar vintage and some even longer (Breguet, since 1775), but really it's only the last sixty years that has any real relevance.
If we look back to the 1980s, TAG Heuer's model line-up was made up almost entirely of new ranges. This was the time of the S/EL, the Kirium, the 4000 and 6000 Series, yes the 2000 survived from the Heuer days, right up until the 2000s when it was rebranded as the Aquaracer. Many forget that the Monaco and Carrera lines were discontinued before TAG bought the Heuer watch company and they weren't brought back until almost ten years had passed, and even then it was as a niche model with a very limited model range.
Soon the Carrera range expanded to include new models, most of which seem to have proved acceptable to the traditionalists, but all that changed at the 2015 Bazelworld watch fair when TAG Heuer (under the stewardship of Jean Claude Biver) announced a new kind of Carrera altogether.
I was spellbound and instantly resolved to buy the Heuer 01 Carrera for myself, but others were not so keen and this is an argument that has splintered the Calibre 11 forum ever since as TAG Heuer have announced more and more Carreras in ever less 'traditional' designs. Nowadays you can buy 'Phantom' Carreras, models which pile black on black on black until actually being able to read the time is secondary to the overall aesthetic. In the process becoming the absolute antithesis of what makes a 'Carrera' a 'Carrera'.
Part of me truly thinks that the Heuer 01 Carrera should have been given a new name, but I can see why they didn't go that route. Yes the model range is confused as hell with watches that look nothing like each other sharing the same name, but from a marketing point of view and from a 'risk' point of view it made total sense to call these new watches 'Carreras' and to tap into the Carrera heritage buzz. I bet in hindsight Audemars Piguet kinda wish they had called the 'Code 11:59' the Royal Oak Supernova... or something, anything that meant it couldn't be simply dismissed out of hand.
Besides, it's become 'the norm' now that watch companies have to keep things simple for the consumer, so having two racing chronograph lines was a no-no. I mean that's why the Autavia is now being pitched more as a pilot's watch than it ever was before, and also why we have the new 'Autavias' that have little to do with the Autavias of old.
So yes, sure, TAG Heuer are milking the Carrera for all it's worth, but all they're really doing is keeping their heads down, trying to make a crust and trying not to do what Audemars Piguet did, because while putting out skeletonised, phantom Carreras might annoy a few people, it doesn't lead to the mass lynching you can expect if you try to launch a genuinely new model range in 2020.
Besides, watch companies are businesses. As much as people want them to be something else, that's what they are and while some companies (Rolex, Patek Phillipe) enjoy the luxury of waiting lists and stagnant / consistent (depending on your point of view) model ranges, some... and TAG Heuer in particular (perhaps because they are on the entry-level end of things and perhaps because part of their brand message is that they are 'avant garde'...) need to constantly bring out new variations of existing models to keep the public interested.
How much is too much though? Well, I guess if you look at the Carrera as a whole then yes it looks like a lot of watches. But if you look at each subset of the Carrera individually it's not outrageous, and actually I think perhaps it looks a lot worse than it really is at the moment as TAG Heuer are replacing the Heuer 01 Carreras with the new Heuer 02 movement seemingly across the board.
Sure there are a lot of Carreras, but it strikes me that people only moan about 'too many' Carreras when there's too many Carreras that they don't actually like. And generally speaking it seems like it's fans of older models moaning about the vast array of 'modular' Carrreras rather than the other way around.
Y.T.I.N.M.T: Your Testarossa is not my Testarossa!
So actually, given that the Carrera name represents quite a large range of watches that could easily have at least three different names, it isn't all that bad... and I for one don't really see the problem with it.
Besides, let's face it, the Carrera 'battle' is long lost... realistically, nowadays 'Carrera' is just an umbrella term for TAG Heuer Racing Chronograph, just as Aquaracer is a blanket term for TAG Heuer Dive Watch. I get that that statement will infuriate some, but I don't think there's anything unusual in that. I don't think too many watch companies have competing model lines, do they? Right or wrong that's what it is, and I'm afraid until the watch industry starts looking forwards again (if it ever does) that's how it's going to be.
See, back in the 80s it was much easier, TAG Heuer had chronographs in the 2000, 3000, 6000, S/EL, and Kirium lines. Watches weren't obsessively defined by 'brand message' and put into boxes like they are now. So whereas you used to have several different models with different case shapes, now you get three different watches sold as Carreras and multiple versions of each.
I think everyone would be happier if a Carrera was allowed to be a Carrera again... I'd much rather see new model lines with different case shapes, but it's not going to happen. 'TAG Heuer launches new Carrera' has so much more impact on social media than 'TAG Heuer launches new Quantum Biscuit'. And yes, I'm afraid social media has to be brought up because it is the root of the problem.
The AP 'Royal Oak' was not an instant success, but without social media to rip it to pieces it was able to grow into the icon that it is. Yes, Facebook and Twitter allow watch companies to get their message out to their customers, but it also means new products are instantly hailed or damned (there's rarely anything in between) and so we return to the problem of 'conservatism'.
I don't know the answer, I'm not even sure there is one... but the watch companies can't trade on the past forever, because people get old and die. Sooner or later they need to start creating new 'icons' because why on Earth should a twenty year old kid care about Steve McQueen and the Monaco? But then, when was the last time you heard someone say 'I wish (insert watch company here) would release a 'new' watch'? No, you only hear 'I wish (insert watch company here) would re-issue such and such watch'.
Maybe the reality is that the time of the wristwatch is running out and all there's left to do is recycle the past?
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