FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 02 Elegant 'Jack Heuer 88th Birthday' Limited Edition

 

CBN2041.FC8306

TAG Heuer's 'Jack Heuer' anniversary models are some of the most revered and sought after pieces among the Calibre11 cognoscenti and this one seems to have been greeted with pretty much universal acclaim (something quite rare on the C11 forum, at least until this year's 160th Anniversary 'Silver' Carrera came along). There are one or two sticking points however and we'll come to those in due course.

To begin with though, let's get the basics out of the way; the CBN2041 is based on the recently released Carrera 'Elegant' and as such it has a 42mm case diameter and is powered by TAG Heuer's in-house calibre Heuer 02 movement. The Heuer 02 gives this watch a power reserve of 80 hours, something the brand are no doubt proud of as they insist on printing it on the dial of every new watch that comes out!

I guess it's fair enough, but like many I'd prefer if it was perhaps printed on the back rather than the front. Traditionally the 'Swiss Made' text has been printed at the bottom of the dial, and while that does still appear at the extreme edge of the dial on the chapter ring, well... I can't help thinking that perhaps this particular piece should have been made as 'timeless' as possible with as little unnecessary dial clutter as possible.

Still it's a minor quibble. From the pictures at least the very light grey dial seems like a nice choice and seems to work pretty well with the black subdials. That 'Panda' dial has mass appeal, but I'm guessing a black/white dial might have looked a little jarring with the 18k rose gold case, so this seems like a good compromise.

As you can see from the picture above, the watch has a display case back to show off that all important 'in-house' movement and the rotor is captioned with a quote from Mr Heuer himself, which is a nice touch and the back of the strap is also embossed with his signature. 

This watch celebrates Jack's 88th birthday (19th November 2020) and as such TAG Heuer have limited this watch to 188 pieces. I don't really get why they think it's important to link the anniversary to the number made, especially when it's not quite 'right'. If it was 88 pieces that would make sense, but like the Monaco 50th Anniversary (limited to 169pcs of each reference) it seems a little bit pointless somehow.

Unfortunately, that isn't one of the niggles I spoke about earlier...

Leaving aside the 'half there, half not' running seconds which is a matter of personal preference (and the subject of some debate since the Monaco Heuer 02 launched a while back) I feel like the 'infinity' symbol on the dial is a little odd. I get that it's '88' on its side, and it's an infinity symbol, but... yeah, again I feel like this watch should have erred more on the cautious side and that seems just a little bit 'gimmicky' to me. 

I mean, watch designers can't win can they, they either get it in the neck for being too conservative or they get it in the neck for adding design touches that aren't strictly necessary... I guess some people will like it, I just think I could live quite happily without it, and like I said, it seems too 'gimmicky' for a watch of this stature.

The other 'niggle', if we can call it that, is the price. The CBN2041 is yours for £15,300, which in the TAG Heuer universe is pushing it. But, on the other hand, we should remember that this is a solid rose gold watch and gold is kinda expensive these days. Moreover, you are paying for exclusivity... 188 pieces is quite a limited run, but then this is three times the price of our average Carrera - it could go either way. Sure it's beyond the means of many who would like to own it, but how is that any different to any other desirable and expensive object?

I guess that's easy for me to say since this isn't exactly my 'style' and so I have no great sense of disappointment that it's out of my price bracket. Don't get me wrong, I do quite like it, it's certainly the most intriguing Carrera 'Elegant' that I've seen, but then the new 42mm Carrera doesn't really rock my boat anyway if I'm completely honest, so that's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Happily for TAG Heuer my newly formed 'Council of Considered Opinion' (or COCO for short) voted this as the watch they'd most want for Christmas, so I don't think my reservations will trouble anyone's sleep. On the whole I think we can safely add this to the list of JH anniversary 'successes' and I'm sure the readers of the T.H.E. blog will join me in wishing Mr Jack a belated happy 88th birthday for the 19th, and here's to many more!