FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02T 'Aston Martin' Limited Edition

CAR5A8E.FT6181

Browsing the TAG Heuer website today I came across this limited edition piece in the Carrera section (and only the Carrera section, it didn't show up under general watches for some reason - I'll leave a link at the bottom of the page). Carrera tourbillons have become slightly ten-a-penny of late, in fact I've kind of stopped noticing them such has been the prevalence of releases. But this one caught my eye, I mean... how could it not?

Black and gold is a colour combination I find very appealing and even more so when the gold is limited to the dial and rotor. In fact the only gold not safely under glass here is on the backplate, where you will find the text 'Aston Martin Edition' and '1 of 150'. The bezel and lugs are forged carbon, while the case is black PVD coated titanium. I must say I love the font they have chosen for the bezel, that is daaamned sexy!

When you look closely you will see that the dial is actually a dark brown (granted the top picture does not show that well at all), which kind of explains why this watch is fitted with a brown leather strap.* While I would be more than happy with a simple black/gold colour como, I think this works quite well and gives a nice background for the rose gold detailing. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the Aston Martin badge being placed above the TAG Heuer shield. I get that it fits better that way around but having two logos on top of each other looks a bit busy for me. That said, I don't have a better suggestion for placing either logo, but Hubert at Calibre 11 does (HERE)

*Not just any leather strap mind you, this is calfskin leather as used by Aston Martin themselves!

The watch is powered by a COSC certified tourbillon chronometer version of the in-house Heuer 02 movement, which boasts a 65 hour power reserve. Naturally, all of this does not come cheap... and I'm afraid not many of us will be finding this in our stockings on December the 25th! List price is currently £21,800 (which puts it way out of my price range) and means it's competing with the likes of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and the Rolex Daytona, a pretty tough fight to pick even if it is a very nice watch and a Swiss made tourbillon into the bargain.

I wonder if this is the last Aston Martin TAG Heuer special edition we'll see? With Aston Martin's sponsorship agreement with Red Bull coming to an end at the end of the 2020 season, it's definitely a possibility... I guess it depends on whether the partnership is more direct than it appears on the surface?

Strangely the TAG Heuer website shows this piece as being 'Out of Stock', but I'm more than sure this can't be true. It's either a pre-order or a mistake and prospective buyers would be advised to enquire with your local AD, who I'm sure will be more than happy to hear from you!

https://www.tagheuer.com/gb/en/timepieces/collections/tag-heuer-carrera/45-mm-calibre-heuer-02-tourbillon/CAR5A8E.FT6181.html